fez-^J 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap. Copyright No.. 

Shelf.Jv:_i:j.: 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




ALEXANDER 111., CZAR OF RUSSIA. 



Historical Tales 



The Romance of Reality 



BY / 

CHARLES MORRIS 

AUTHOR OF "half-hours WITH THE BEST AMERICAN 
AUTHORS," "tales FROM THE DRAMATISTS," "KING 
ARTHUR AND THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND-TABLE," ETC. 



RUSSIAN 



PHILADELPHIA 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

1898 



4 CONTENTS. 

PAGK 

SCHAMYL, THE HeRO OF CiRCASSIA 258 

The Charge op the Light Brigade 267 

The Fall op Sebastopol 276 

At the Gates of Constantinople 284 

The Nihilists and their Work 293 

The Advance op Russia in Asia , . . 300 

The Railroad in Turkestan 311 

An Escape from the Mines of Siberia 319 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, 



RUSSIA. 

PAGE 

Alexander III., Czar of Kussia . . (Frontisjnece). 

Cathedral at Ostankino, near Moscow ..... 40 

General View of Moscow 55 

KiAKHTA, Siberia 84 

Church of the Assumption, Moscow, in which the 

Czar is Crowned 109 

Peter the Great 142 

Sleighing in Kussia 160 

The City of Kasan 199 

Scene on a Kussian Farm 223 

Mount St. Peter, Crimea 267 

The Walls of Constantinople 290 

Dowager Czarina of Kussia 300 

Group of Siberians 320 



6 HISTORICAL TALES. 

Have any of my readers ever from a hill-top looked 
out over a broad, low-lying meadow-land filled with 
morning mist, a dense white shroud under which 
everything lay hidden, all life and movement lost to 
view ? In such a scene, as the mist thins under the 
rays of the rising sun, vague forms at first dimly 
appear, magnified and monstrous in their outlines, 
the shadows of a buried wonderland. Then, as the 
mist slowly lifts, like a great white curtain, living 
and moving objects appear below, still of strange 
outlines and unnatural dimensions. Finally, as if by 
the sweep of an enchanter's wand, the mists vanish, 
the land lies clear under the solar rays, and we per- 
ceive that these seeming monsters and giants are 
but the familiar forms which we know so well, those 
of houses and trees, men and their herds, actively 
stirring beneath us, clearly revealed as the things of 
every day. 

It is thus that the land of Eussia appears to us 
when the mists of prehistoric time first begin to lift. 
Half-formed figures appear, rising, vanishing, show- 
ing large through the vapor; stirring, interwoven, 
endlessly coming and going ; a phantasmagoria which 
it is impossible more than half to understand. At 
that early date the great Eussian plain seems to have 
been the home of unnumbered tribes of varied race 
and origin, made up of men doubtless full of hopes 
and aspirations like ourselves, j^et whose story we 
fail to read on the blurred page of history, and con- 
cerning whom we must rest content with knowing 
a few of the names. 

Yet progressive civilizations had long existed in 



THE ANCIENT SCYTHIANS. 7 

the countries to the south, Egypt and Assyria, Greece 
and Persia. History was actively being made there, 
but it had not penetrated the mist-laden North. The 
Greeks founded colonies on the northern shores of 
the Black Sea, but they troubled themselves little 
about the seething tribes with whom they came there 
into contact. The land they called Scythia, and its 
people Scythians, but the latter were scarcely known 
until about 500 B.C., when Darius, the great Persian 
king, crossed the Danube and invaded their country. 
He found life there in abundance, and more war- 
like activity than he relished, for the fierce nomads 
drove him and his army in terror from their soil, 
and only fortune and a bridge of boats saved them 
from perishing. 

It was this event that first gave the people of 
old Eussia a place on the page of history. Herodo- 
tus, the charming old historian and story-teller, wrote 
down for us all he could learn about them, though 
what he says has probably as much fancy in it as 
fact. 

We are told that these broad levels were formerly 
inhabited by a people called the Cimmerians, who 
were driven out by the Scythians and went — it is 
hard to tell whither. A shadow of their name sur- 
vives in the Crimea, and some believe that they were 
the ancestors of the Cymri, the Celts of the West. 

The Scythians, who thus came into history like a 
cloud of war, made the god of war their chief deity. 
The temples which they built to this deity were of 
the simplest, being great heaps of fagots, which were 
added to every year as they rotted away under the 



8 HISTORICAL TALES. 

rains. Into the top of the heap was thrust an an- 
cient iron sword as the emblem of the god. To this 
grim symbol more victims were sacrificed than to all 
the other deities ; not only cattle and horses, but pris- 
oners taken in battle, of whom one out of every hun- 
dred died to honor the god, their blood being caught 
in vessels and poured on the sword. 

A people with a worship like this must have been 
savage in grain. To prove their prowess in war 
they cut off the heads of the slain and carried them 
to the king. Like the Indians of the West, they 
scalped their enemies. These scalps, softened by 
treatment, they used as napkins at their meals, and 
even sewed them together to make cloaks. Here 
was a refinement in barbarity undreamed of by the 
Indians. 

These were not their only savage customs. They 
drank the blood of the first enemy killed by them in 
battle, and at their high feasts used drinking-cups 
made from the skulls of their foes. When a chief 
died cruelty was given free vent. The slaves and 
horses of the dead chief were slain at his grave, and 
placed upright like a circle of horsemen around the 
royal tomb, being impaled on sharp timbers to keep 
them in an upright position. 

Tribes with habits like these have no history. 
There is nothing in their careers worth the telling, 
and no one to tell it if there were. Their origin, 
manners, and customs may be of interest, but not 
their intertribal quarrels. 

Herodotus tells us of others besides the Scythians. 
There were the Melanchlainai, who dressed only in 



THE ANCIENT SCYTHIANS. 9 

black J the ISTeuri, who once a year changed into 
wolves ; the Agathyrei, who took pleasure in trin- 
kets of gold ; the Sauromati, children of the Ama- 
zons, or women warriors ; the Argippei, bald-headed 
and snub-nosed from their birth ; the Issedones, 
who feasted on the dead bodies of their parents ; 
the Arimaspians, a one-eyed race; the Gryphons, 
guardians of great hoards of gold ; the Hyperbo- 
reans, in whose land white feathers (snow-flakes?) 
fell all the year round from the skies. 

Such is the mixture of fact and fable which He- 
rodotus learned from the traders and travellers of 
Greece. We know nothing of these tribes but the 
names. Their ancestors may have dwelt for thou- 
sands of years on the Eussian plains ; their descend- 
ants may still make up part of the great Eussian 
people and retain some of their old-time habits 
and customs ; but of their doings history takes no 
account. 

The Scythians, who occupied the south of Eussia, 
came into contact with the Greek trading colonies 
north of the Black Sea, and gained from them some 
little veneer of civilization. They aided the Greeks 
in their commerce, took part in their caravans to 
the north and east, and spent some portion of the 
profits of their peaceful labor in objects of art made 
for them by Greek artists. 

This we know, for some of these objects still exist. 
Jewels owned by the ancient Scythians may be seen 
to-day in Eussian museums. Chief in importance 
among these relics are two vases of wonderful interest 
kept in the museum of the Hermitage, at St. Peters- 



10 HISTORICAL TALES. 

burg. These are the silver vase of Nicopol and the 
golden vase of Kertch, both probably as old as the 
days of Herodotus. These vases speak with his- 
tory. On the silver vase we may see the faces and 
forms of the ancient Scythians, men with long hair 
and beards and large features. They resemble in 
dress and aspect the people who now dwell in the 
same country, and they are shown in the act of 
breaking in and bridling their horses, just as their 
descendants do to-day. Progress has had no place 
on these broad plains. There life stands still. 

On the golden vase appear figures who wear 
pointed caps and dresses ornamented in the Asiatic 
fashion, while in their hands are bows of strange 
shape. But their features are those of men of 
Aryan descent, and in them we seem to see the far- 
off progenitors of the modern Russians. 

Herodotus, in his chatty fashion, tells us various 
problematical stories of the Scythians, premising 
that he does not believe them all himself. A tra- 
dition with them was that they were the youngest 
of all nations, being descended from Targitaus, one 
of the numerous sons of Jove. The three children 
of Targitaus for a time ruled the land, but their 
joint rule was changed by a prodigy. There fell 
from the skies four implements of gold, — a plough, 
a yoke, a battle-axe, and a drinking-cup. The oldest 
brother hastened eagerly to seize this treasure, but 
it burst into flame at his approach. The second then 
made the attempt, but was in his turn driven back 
by the scorching flames. But on the approach of 
the youngest the flames vanished, the gold grew 



THE ANCIENT SCYTHIANS. 11 

cool, and he was enabled to take possession of the 
heaven-given implements. His elders then withdrew 
from the throne, warned by this sign from the gods, 
and left him sole ruler. The story proceeds that 
the royal gold was guarded with the greatest care, 
yearly sacrifices being made in its honor. If its 
guardian fell asleep in the open air during the sacri- 
fices he was doomed to die within the year. But as 
reward for the faithful keeping of his trust he re- 
ceived as much land as he could ride round on 
horseback in a day. 

The old historian further tells us that the Scythian 
warriors invaded the kingdom of Media, which they 
conquered and held for twenty-eight years. During 
this long absence strange events were taking place 
at home. They had held many slaves, whom it was 
their custom to blind, as they used them only to stir 
the milk in the great pot in which koumiss, their 
favorite beverage, was made. 

The wives of the absent warriors, after years of 
■waiting, gave up all hopes of their return and mar- 
ried the blind slaves; and while the masters tar- 
ried in Media the children of their slaves grew to 
manhood. 

The time at length came when the warriors, filled 
with home-sickness, left the subject realm to seek 
their native plains. As they marched onward they 
found themselves stopped by a great dike, dug from 
the Tauric Mountains to Lake Mseotis, behind which 
stood a host of youthful warriors. They were the 
children of the slaves, who were determined to keep 
the land for themselves. Many battles were fought, 



12 HISTORICAL TALES. 

but the young men held their own bravelj', and the 
warriors were in despair. 

Then one of them cried to his fellows, — 

" What foolish thing are we doing, Scythians ? 
These men are our slaves, and every one of them 
that falls is a loss to us ; while each of us that falls 
reduces our number. Take ray advice, lay aside 
spear and bow, and let each man take his horsewhip 
and go boldly up to them. So long as they see us 
with arms in our hands they fancy that they are our 
equals and fight us bravely. But let them see us 
with only whips, and they will remember that they 
are slaves and flee like dogs from before our faces." 

It happened as he said. As the Scythians ap- 
proached with their whips the youths were so as- 
tounded that they forgot to fight, and ran away in 
trembling terror. And so the warriors came home, 
and the slaves were put to making koumiss again. 

These fabulous stories of the early people of 
Eussia may be followed by an account of their 
funeral customs, left for us by an Arabian writer 
who visited their land in the ninth century. He 
tells us that for ten days after the death of one of 
their great men his friends bewailed him, showing 
the depth of their grief by getting drunk on koumiss 
over his corpse. 

Then the men-servants were asked which of them 
would be buried with his master. The one that 
consented was instantly seized and strangled. The 
same question was put to the women, one of whom 
was sure to accept. There may have been some 
rare future reward offered for death in such a cause. 



THE ANCIENT SCYTHIANS. 13 

The willing victim was bathed, adorned, and treated 
like a princess, and did nothing but drink and sing 
while the obsequies lasted. 

On the day fixed for the end of the ceremonies, 
the dead man was laid in a boat, with part of his 
arms and garments. His favorite horse was slain 
and laid in the boat, and with it the corpse of the 
man-servant. Then the young girl was led up. She 
took off her jewels, a glass of kvass was put in her 
hand, and she sang a farewell song. 

"All at once," says the writer, "the old woman 
who accompanied her, and whom they called the 
angel of death, bade her to drink quickly, and to 
enter into the cabin of the boat, where lay the dead 
body of her master. At these words she changed 
color, and as she made some difiiculty about enter- 
ing, the old woman seized her by the hair, dragged 
her in, and entered with her. The men immediately 
began to beat their shields with clubs to prevent the 
other girls from hearing the cries of their com- 
panion, which might prevent them one day dying 
for their master." 

The boat was then set on fire, and served as a 
funeral pile, in which living and dead alike were 
consumed. 



OLEG THE VARANGIAN. 

For ages and ages, none can say how many, the 
great plain of Eussia existed as a nursery of tribes, 
some wandering with their herds, some dwelling in 
villages and tilling their fields, but all warlike and 
all barbarians. And over this plain at intervals 
swept conquering hordes from Asia, the terrible 
Huns, the devastating Avars, and others of varied 
names. But as yet the Eussia we know did not 
exist, and its very name had never been heard. 

As time went on, the people in the centre and 
north of the country became peaceful and pros- 
perous, since the invaders did not cross their borders, 
and a great and wealthy city arose, whose commerce 
in time extended on the east as far as Persia and 
India, on the south to Constantinople, and on the 
west far through the Baltic Sea. Though seated in 
Eussia, still largely a land of barbarous tribes, Nov- 
gorod became one of the powerful cities of the earth, 
making its strength felt far and wide, placing the 
tribes as far as the Ural Mountains under tribute, 
and growing so strong and warlike that it became a 
common saying among the people, " Who can oppose 
God and Novgorod the Great ?" 

But trouble arose for Novgorod. Its chief trade 
lay through the Baltic Sea, and here its ships met 
those terrible Scandinavian pirates who were then 
14 



OLEG THE VARANGIAN. 15 

the ocean's lords. Among these bold rovers were 
the Danes who descended on England, the Normans 
who won a new home in France, the daring voy- 
agers who discovered Iceland and Greenland, and 
those who sailed up the Mediterranean as far as 
Constantinople, conquering kingdoms as they went. 

To some of these Scandinavians the merchants of 
Novgorod turned for aid against the others. Bands 
of them had made their way into Eussia and settled 
on the eastern shores of the Baltic. To these the 
Novgorodians appealed in their trouble, and in the 
year 862 asked three Yarangian brothers, Eurik, 
Sinaf, and Truvor, to come to their aid. The warlike 
brothers did so, seated themselves on the frontier 
of the republic of Novgorod, drove off its foes — and 
became its foes themselves. The people of Novgo- 
rod, finding their trade at the mercy of their allies, 
submitted to their power, and in 864 invited Eurik 
to become their king. His two brothers had mean- 
time died. 

Thus it was that the Eussian empire began, for the 
Yarangians came from a country called Eoss, from 
which their new realm gained the name of Eussia. 

Eurik took the title of Grand Prince, made his 
principal followers lords of the cities of his new 
realm, and the republic of Novgorod came to an end 
in form, though not in spirit. It is interesting to 
note at this point that Eussia, which began as a re- 
public, has ended as one of the most absolute of 
monarchies. The first step in its subjection was taken 
when Novgorod invited Eurik the Yarangian to be 
its prince; the other steps came later, one by one. 



16 HISTORICAL TALES. 

For fifteen years Eurik remained lord of Novgo- 
rod, and then died and left his four-year-old son Igor 
as his heir, with Oleg, his kinsman, as regent of the 
realm. It is the story of Oleg, as told by Nestor, 
the gossipy old Russian chronicler, that we propose 
here to tell, but it seemed useful to precede it by an 
account of how the Russian empire came into ex- 
istence. 

Oleg was a man of his period, a barbarian and a 
soldier born; brave, crafty, adventurous, faithful 
to Igor, his ward, cruel and treacherous to others. 
Under his rule the Russian dominions rapidly and 
widely increased. 

At an earlier date two Yarangians, Askhold and 
Dir by name, had made their way far to the south, 
where they became masters of the city of Kief. 
They even dared to attack Constantinople, but were 
driven back from that great stronghold of the South. 

It by no means pleased Oleg to find this powerful 
kingdom founded in the land which he had set out to 
subdue. He determined that Kief should be his, and 
in 882 made his way to its vicinity. But it was easier 
to reach than to take. Its rulers were brave, their 
Yarangian followers were courageous, the city was 
strong. Oleg, doubting his power to win it by force 
of arms, determined to try what could be done by 
stratagem and treachery. 

Leaving his army, and taking Igor with him, he 
floated down the Dnieper with a few boats, in which 
a number of armed men were hidden, and at length 
landed near the ancient city of Kief, which stood on 
high ground near the river. Placing his warriors in 



OLEG THE VARANGIAN. 17 

ambush, he sent a messenger to Askhold and Dir, 
with the statement that a party of Yarangian mer- 
chants, whom the prince of Novgorod had sent to 
Greece, had just landed, and desired to see them as 
friends and men of their own race. 

Those were simple times, in which even the rulers 
of cities did not put on any show of state. On the 
contrary, the two princes at once left the city and 
went alone to meet the false merchants. They had 
no sooner arrived than Oleg threw off his mask. 
His followers sprang from their ambush, arms in 
hand. 

" You are neither princes nor of princely birth," 
he cried ; " but I am a prince, and this is the son of 
Eurik." 

And at a sign from his hand Askhold and Dir 
were laid dead at his feet. 

By this act of base treachery Oleg became the 
master of Kief. No one in the city ventured to re- 
sist the strong army which he quickly brought up, 
and the metropolis of the south opened its gates to 
the man who had wrought murder under the guise 
of war. It is not likely, though, that Oleg sought 
to justify his act on any grounds. In those barbar- 
ous days, when might made right, murder was too 
much an e very-day matter to be deeply considered 
by any one. 

Oleg was filled with admiration of the city he had 
won. " Let Kief be the mother of all the Eussian 
cities !" he exclaimed. And such it became, for he 
made it his capital, and for three centuries it re- 
mained the capital city of the Eussian realm. 

2 



18 HISTORICAL TALES. 

What he principally admired it for was its near- 
ness to Constantinople, the capital of the great em- 
pire of the East, on which, like the former lords of 
Kief, he looked with greedy and envious eyes. 

For long centuries past Greece and the other 
countries of the South had paid little heed to the 
dwellers on the Eussian plains, of whose scattered 
tribes they had no fear. But with the coming of 
the Varangians, the conquest of the tribes, and the 
founding of a wide-spread empire, a different state 
of affairs began, and from that day to this Constan- 
tinople has found the people of the steppes its most 
dangerous and persistent foes. 

Oleg was not long in making the Greek empire 
feel his heavy hand. Filling the minds of his fol- 
lowers and subjects with his own thirst for blood 
and plunder, he set out with an army of eighty 
thousand men, in two thousand barks, passed the 
cataracts of the Borysthenes, crossed the Black 
Sea, murdered the subjects of the empire in hosts, 
and, as the chronicles say, sailed overland with all 
sails set to the port of Constantinople itself. What 
he probably did was to have his vessels taken over 
a neck of land on wheels or rollers. 

Here he threw the imperial city into mortal terror, 
fixed his shield on the very gate of Constantinople, 
and forced the emperor to buy him off at the price 
of an enormous ransom. To the treaty made the 
Varangian warriors swore by their gods Perune 
and Voloss, by their rings, and by their swords, — 
gold and steel, the things they honored most and 
most desired. 



OLEG THE VARANGIAN. 19 

Then back in triumph they sailed to Kief, rich 
with booty, and ever after hailing their leader as 
the Wise Man, or Magician. Eight years afterwards 
Oleg made a treaty of alliance and commerce with 
Constantinople, in which Greeks and Eussians stood 
on equal footing. Eussia had made a remarkable 
stride forward as a nation since Eurik was invited 
to Novgorod a quarter-century before. 

For thirty-three years Oleg held the throne. His 
was too strong a hand to yield its power to his 
ward. Igor must wait for Oleg's death. He had 
found a province ; he left an empire. In his hands 
Eussia grew into greatness, and from Novgorod to 
Kief and far and wide to the right and left stretched 
the lands won by his conquering sword. 

He was too great a man to die an ordinary death. 
According to the tradition, miracle had to do with 
his passing away. Nestor, the prince of Eussian 
chroniclers, tells us the following story : 

Oleg had a favorite horse, which he rode alike in 
battle and in the hunt, until at length a prediction 
came from the soothsayers that death would over- 
take him through his cherished charger. Warrior as 
he was, he had the superstition of the pagan, and to 
avoid the predicted fate he sent his horse far away, 
and for years avoided even speaking of it. 

Then, moved by curiosity, he asked what had be- 
come of the hanished animal. 

" It died years ago," was the reply ; " only its 
bones remain." 

" So much for your soothsayers," he cried, with a 
contempt that was not unmixed with relief. " That, 



20 HISTORICAL TALES. 

then, is all this prediction is worth ! But where are 
the bones of my good old horse ? I should like to 
see what little is left of him." 

He was taken to the spot where lay the skeleton 
of his old favorite, and gazed with some show of 
feeling on the bleaching bones of what had once 
been his famous war-horse. Then, setting his foot 
on the skull, he said, — 

" So this is the creature that is destined to be my 
death." 

At that moment a deadly serpent that lay coiled 
up within the skull darted out and fixed its poison- 
ous fangs in the conqueror's foot. And thus ignobly 
he who had slain men by thousands and conquered 
an empire came to his death. 



THE VENGEANCE OF QUEEN 
OLGA. 

The death of Oleg brought Igor his ward, then 
nearly forty years of age, to the throne of Eurik his 
father. And the same old story of bloodshed and 
barbarity went on. In those days a king was king 
in name only. He was really but the chief of a 
band of plunderers, who dug wealth from the world 
with the sword instead of the spade, threw it away 
in wild orgies, and then hounded him into leading 
them to new wars. 

The story of the ]S"orthmen is everywhere the 
same. While in the West they were harrying Eng- 
land, France, and the Mediterranean countries with 
fire and sword, in the East their Yarangian kinsmen 
were spreading devastation through Eussia and the 
empire of the Greeks. 

Like his predecessor, Igor invaded this empire 
with a great army, landing in Asia Minor and treat- 
ing the people with such brutal ferocity that no earth- 
quake or volcano could have shown itself more mer- 
ciless. His prisoners w^ere slaughtered in the most 
barbarous manner, fire swept away all that havoc had 
left, and then the Eussian prince sailed in triumph 
against Constantinople, with his ten thousand barks 
manned by murderers and laden with plunder. 

21 



22 HISTORICAL TALES. 

But the Greeks were now ready for their foes. 
Pouring on them the terrible Greek fire, they drove 
them back in dismay to Asia Minor, where they were 
met and routed by the land forces of the empire. In 
the end Igor hurried home with hardly a third of 
his great army. 

Three years afterward he again led an army in 
boats against Constantinople, but this time he was 
bought off by a tribute of gold, silver, and precious 
stuffs, as Oleg had been before him. 

Igor was now more than seventy years old, and 
naturally desired to spend the remainder of his days 
in peace, but his followers would not let him rest. 
The spoils and tribute of the Greeks had quickly 
disappeared from their open hands, and the warlike 
profligates demanded new plunder. 

" We are naked," they bitterly complained, " while 
the companions of Sveneld have beautiful arms and 
fine clothing. Come with us and levy contributions, 
that we and you may dwell in plenty together." 

Igor obeyed — he could not well help himself — 
and led them against the Drevlians, a neighboring 
nation already under tribute. Marching into their 
country, he forced them to pay still heavier tribute, 
and allowed his soldiers to plunder to their hearts' 
content. 

Then the warriors of Kief marched back, laden 
with spoils. But the wolfish instincts of Igor were 
aroused. More, he thought, might be squeezed out 
of the DrevMans, but he wanted this extra plunder for 
himself. So he sent his army on to Kief, and went 
back with a small force to the country of the Brev- 



THE VENGEANCE OP QUEEN OLGA. 23 

lians, where he held out his hand — ^with the sword in 
it — for more. 

He got more than he bargained for. The Drev- 
lians, driven to extremity, came with arms instead 
of gold, attacked the king and his few followers, 
and killed the whole of them upon the spot. And 
thus in blood ended the career of this white-haired 
tribute-seeker. 

The fallen prince left behind him a widow named 
Olga and a son named Sviatoslaf, who was still a 
child, as Igor had been at the death of his father. 
So Olga became regent of the kingdom, and Sveneld 
was made leader of the army. 

How deeply Olga loved Igor we are not prepared 
to say, but we are told some strange tales of what 
she did to avenge him. These tales we may believe 
or not, as we please. They are legends only, like 
those of early Eome, but they are all the history we 
have, and so we repeat the story much as old Kestor 
has told it. 

The death of Igor filled the hearts of the Drevlians 
with hope. Their great enemy was gone ; the new 
prince was a child : might they not gain power as 
well as liberty? Their prince Male should marry 
Olga the widow, and all would be well with them. 

So twenty of their leading men were sent to Kief, 
where they presented themselves to the queenly re- 
gent. Their offer of an alliance was made in terms 
suited to the manners of the times. 

" We have killed your husband," they said, " be- 
cause he plundered and devoured like a wolf. But 
we would be at peace with you and yours. We 



24 HISTORICAL TALES. 

have good princes, under whom our country thrives. 
Come and marry our prince Male and be our 
queen." 

Olga listened like one who weighed the offer 
deeply. 

" After all," she said, " my husband is dead, and I 
cannot bring him to life again. Your proposal seems 
good to me. Leave me now, and come again to- 
morrow, when I will entertain you before my people 
as you deserve. Eeturn to your barks, and when 
my people come to you to-morrow, say to them, 
' We will not go on horseback or on foot ; you must 
carry us in our barks.' Thus you will be honored 
as I desire you to be." 

Back went the Drevlians, glad at heart, for the 
queen had seemed to them very gracious indeed. 
But Olga had a deep and wide pit dug before a house 
outside the city, and next day she went to that house 
and sent for the ambassadors. 

" We will not go on foot or on horseback," they 
said to the messengers ; " carry us in our barks." 

" We are your slaves," answered the men of Kief. 
"Our ruler is slain, and our princess is willing to 
marry your prince." 

So they took up on their shoulders the barks, in 
which the Drevlians proudly sat like kings on their 
thrones, and carried them to the front of the house 
in which Olga awaited them with smiling lips but 
ruthless heart. 

There, at a sign from her hand, the ambassadors 
and the barks in which they sat were flung head- 
long into the yawning pit. 



THE VENGEANCE OP QUEEN OLGA. 25 

" How do you like your entertainment ?" asked the 
cruel queen. 

" Oh !" they cried, in terror, " pity us ! Forgive us 
the death of Igor !" 

But they begged in vain, for at her command the 
pit was filled up and the Drevlians were buried 
alive. 

Then Olga sent messengers to the land of the 
Drevlians, with this message to their prince : 

" If you really wish for me, send me men of the 
highest consideration in your country, that my 
people may be induced to let me go, and that I may 
come to you with honor and dignity." 

This message had its eifect. The chief men of 
the country were now sent as ambassadors. They 
entered Kief over the grave of their murdered 
countrymen without knowing where they trod, and 
came to the palace expecting to be hospitably enter- 
tained. 

Olga had a bath made ready for them, and sent 
them word, — 

" First take a bath, that you may refresh your- 
selves after the fatigue of your journey, then come 
into my presence." 

The bath was heated, and the Drevlians entered it. 
But, to their dismay, smoke soon began to circle 
round them, and flames flashed on their frightened 
eyes. They ran to the doors, but they were im- 
movable. Olga had ordered them to be made fast 
and the house to be set on fire, and the miserable 
bathers were all burned alive. 

But even this terrible revenge was not enough 



26 HISTORICAL TALES. 

for the implacable widow. Those were days when 
news crept slowly, and the Drevlians did not dream 
of Olga's treachery. Once more she sent them a 
deceitful message : " I am about to repair to you, and 
beg you to get ready a large quantity of hydromel 
in the place where my husband was killed, that I 
may weep over his tomb and honor him with the 
trizna [funeral banquet]." 

The Drevlians, full of joy at this message, gathered 
honey in quantities and brewed it into hydromel. 
Then Olga sought the tomb, followed by a small 
guard who were only lightly armed. For a while 
she wept over the tomb. Then she ordered a great 
mound of honor to be heaped over it. When this 
was done she directed the trizna to be set out. 

The Drevlians drank freely, while the men of Kief 
served them with the intoxicating beverage. 

" Where are the friends whom we sent to you ?" 
they asked. 

" They are coming with the friends of my hus- 
band," she repHed. 

And so the feast went on until the unsuspecting 
Drevlians were stupid with drink. Then Olga bade 
her guards draw their weapons and slay her foes, 
and a great slaughter began. When it ended, five 
thousand Drevlians lay dead at her feet. 

Olga's revenge was far from being complete : her 
thirst for blood grew as it was fed. She returned 
to Kief, collected her army, took her young son with 
her that he might early learn the art of war, and re- 
turned inspired by the rage of vengeance to the land 
of the Drevlians. 



THE VENGEANCE OF QUEEN OLGA. 27 

Here she laid waste the country and destroyed 
the towns. In the end she came to the capital, 
Korosten, and laid siege to it. Its name meant 
"wall of bark," so that it was, no doubt, a town 
of wood, as probably all the Eussian towns at that 
time were. 

The siege went on, but the inhabitants defended 
themselves obstinately, for they knew now the spirit 
of the woman with whom they had to contend. So 
a long time passed and Korosten still held out. 

Finding that force would not serve, Olga tried 
stratagem, in which she was such an adept. 

"Why do you hold out so foolishly?" she said. 
"You know that all your other towns are in my 
power, and your countrypeople are peacefully till- 
ing their fields while you are uselessly dying of 
hunger. You would be wise to yield ; you have no 
more to fear from me ; I have taken full revenge for 
my slain husband." 

The Drevlians, to conciliate her, offered a tribute 
of honey and furs. This she refused, with a show 
of generosity, and said that she would ask no more 
from them than a tribute of a pigeon and three 
sparrows from each house. 

Gladdened by the lightness of this request, the 
Drevlians quickly gathered the birds asked for, and 
sent them out to the invading army. They did not 
dream what treachery lay in Olga's cruel heart. 
That evening she let all the birds loose with lighted 
matches tied to their tails. Back to their nests in 
the town they flew, and soon Korosten was in flames 
in a thousand places. 



28 HISTORICAL TALES. 

In terror the inhabitants fled through their gates, 
but the soldiers of the bloodthirsty queen awaited 
them outside, sword in hand, with orders to cut 
them down without mercy as they appeared. The 
prince and all the leading men of the state perished, 
and only the lowest of the populace were left alive, 
while the whole land thereafter was laid under a 
load of tribute so heavy that it devastated the 
country like an invading army and caused the 
people to groan bitterly beneath the burden. 

And thus it was that Olga the widow took re- 
venge upon the murderers of her fallen lord. 



VLADIMIR THE GREAT. 

Yladimir, Grand Prince of Eussia before and 
after the year 1000, won the name not only of 
Yladimir the Great but of St. Yladimir, though be 
was as great a reprobate as he was a soldier and 
monarch, and as unregenerate a sinner as ever sat 
on a throne. But it was he who made Eussia a 
Christian country, and in reward the Eussian Church 
still looks upon him as " coequal with the Apostles." 
What he did to deserve this high honor we shall see. 

Sviatoslaf, the son of Olga, had proved a hardy 
soldier. He disdained the palace and lived in the 
camp. In his marches he took no tent or baggage, 
but slept in the open air, lived on horse-flesh broiled 
by himself upon the coals, and showed all the en- 
durance of a Cossack warrior born in the snows. 
After years of warfare he fell on the field of battle, 
and his skull, ornamented with a circle of gold, 
became a drinking-cup for the prince of the Petche- 
negans, by whose hands he had been slain. His 
empire was divided between his three sons, Yaropolk 
reigning in Kief, Oleg becoming prince of the Drev- 
lians, and Yladimir taking Eurik's old capital of 
Novgorod. 

These brothers did not long dwell in harmony. 
War broke out between Yaropolk and Oleg, and the 
latter was killed. Yladimir, fearing that his turn 

29 



30 HISTORICAL TALES. 

would come next, fled to the country of the Yaran- 
gians, and Yaropolk became lord over all Eussia. It 
is the story of the fugitive prince, and how he made 
his way from flight to empire and from empire to 
sainthood, that we are now about to tell. 

For two years Vladimir dwelt with his Yarangian 
kinsmen, during which time he lived the wild life of 
a l^orseman, joining the bold vikings in their raids 
for booty far and wide over the seas of Europe. 
Then, gathering a large band of Yarangian adven- 
turers, he returned to Novgorod, drove out the men 
of Yaropolk, and sent word by them to his brother 
that he would soon call upon him at Kief. 

Yladimir quickly proved himself a prince of bar- 
barian instincts. In Polotsk ruled Eogvolod, a Ya- 
rangian prince, whose daughter Eogneda, famed for 
her beauty, was betrothed to Yaropolk. Yladimir 
demanded her hand, but received an insulting reply. 

" I will never unboot the son of a slave," said the 
haughty princess. 

It was the custom at that time for brides, on the 
wedding night, to pull off the boots of their husbands ; 
and Yladimir's mother had been one of Queen Olga's 
slave women. 

But insults like this, to men like Yladimir, are 
apt to breed bloodshed. Hot with revengeful fury, 
he marched against Polotsk, killed in battle Eog- 
volod and his two sons, and forced the disdainful 
princess to accept his hand still red with her father's 
blood. 

Then he marched against Kief, where Yaropolk, 
who seems to have had more ambition than courage, 



VLADIMIR THE GREAT. 31 

shut himself up within the walls. These walls were 
strong, the people were faithful, and Kief might long 
have defied its assailant had not treachery dwelt 
within. Yladimir had secretly bought over a villain 
named Blude, one of Yaropolk's trusted councillors, 
who filled his master's mind with suspicion of the 
people of Kief and persuaded him to fly for safety. 
His flight gave Kief into his brother's hands. 

To Eodnia fled the fugitive prince, where he was 
closely besieged by Yladimir, to whose aid came a 
famine so fierce that it still gives point to a common 
Eussian proverb. Flight or surrender became neces- 
sary. Yaropolk might have found strong friends 
among some of the powerful native tribes, but the 
voice of the traitor was still at his ear, and at Blude's 
suggestion he gave himself up to Yladimir. It was 
like the sheep yielding himself to the wolf. By the 
victor's order Yaropolk was slain in his father's 
palace. 

And now the traitor sought his reward. Yladimir 
felt that it was to Blude he owed his empire, and for 
three days he so loaded him with honors and dig- 
nities that the false-hearted wretch deemed himself 
the greatest among the Eussians. 

But the villain had been playing with edge tools. 
At the end of the three days Yladimir called Blude 
before him. 

" I have kept all my promises to you," he said. 
" I have treated you as my friend ; your honors ex- 
ceed your highest wishes; I have made you lord 
among my lords. But now," he continued, and his 
voice grew terrible, " the judge succeeds the bene- 



32 HISTORICAL TALES. 

factor. Traitor and assassin of your prince, I con- 
demn you to death." 

And at his stern command the startled and trem- 
bling traitor was struck dead in his presence. 

The tide of affairs had strikingly turned. Yladi- 
mir, late a fugitive, was now lord of all the realm 
of Eussia. His power assured, he showed himself 
in a new aspect. Yaropolk's widow, a Greek nun 
of great beauty, was forced to become his wife. 
'Not content with two, he continued to marry until 
he had no less than six wives, while he filled his pal- 
aces with the daughters of his subjects until they 
numbered eight hundred in all. 

" Thereby hangs a tale," as Shakespeare says. 
Eogneda, "Vladimir's first wife, had forgiven him for 
the murder of her father and brothers, but could 
not forgive him for the insult of turning her out of 
his palace and putting other women in her place. 
She determined to be revenged. 

One day when he had gone to see her in the 
lonely abode to which she had been banished, he fell 
asleep in her presence. Here was the opportunity 
her heart craved. Seizing a dagger, she was on the 
point of stabbing him where he lay, when Yladimir 
awoke and stopped the blow. While the frightened 
woman stood trembling before him, he furiously bade 
her prepare for death, as she should die by his own 
hand. 

"Put on your wedding dress," he harshly com- 
manded ; " seek your handsomest apartment, and 
stretch yourself on the sumptuous bed you there 
possess. Die you must, but you have been honored 



VLADIMIR THE GREAT. 33 

as the wife of Yladimir, and shall not meet an ig- 
noble death." 

Eogneda did as she was bidden, yet hope had not 
left her heart, and she taught her young son Isiaslaf 
a part which she wished him to play. When the 
frowning prince entered the apartment where lay 
his condemned wife, he was met by the boy, who 
presented him with a drawn sword, saying, "You 
are not alone, father. Your son will be witness to 
your deed." 

Yladimir's expression changed as he looked at the 
appealing face of the child. 

" Who thought of seeing you here ?" he cried, and, 
flinging the sword to the floor, he hastily left the 
room. 

Calling his nobles together, he told them what had 
happened and asked their advice. 

"Prince," they said, "you should spare the cul- 
prit for the sake of the child. Our advice is that 
you make the boy lord of Eogvolod's principality." 

Yladimir did so, sending Eogneda with her son to 
rule over her father's realm, where he built a new 
city which he named after the boy. 

Yladimir had been born a pagan, and a pagan he 
was still, worshipping the Yarangian deities, in par- 
ticular the god Perune, of whom he had a statue 
erected on a hill near his palace, adorned with a 
silver head. On the same sacred hill were planted 
the statues of other idols, and Yladimir proposed to 
restore the old human sacrifices by offering one of 
his own people as a victim to the gods. 

For this purpose there was selected a young Ya- 
3 



34 HISTORICAL TALES. 

rangian who, with his father, had adopted the Chris- 
tian faith. The father refused to give up his son, 
and the enraged people, who looked on the refusal as 
an insult to their prince and their gods, broke into 
the house and murdered both father and son. These 
two have since been canonized by the Eussian Church 
as the only martyrs to its faith. 

Yladimir by this time had become great in do- 
minion, his warlike prowess extending the borders 
of Eussia on all sides. The nations to the south 
saw that a great kingdom had arisen on their north- 
ern border, ruled by a warlike and conquering prince, 
and it was deemed wise to seek to win him from the 
worship of idols to a more elevated faith. Askhold 
and Dir had been baptized as Christians. Olga, 
after her bloody revenge, had gone to Constantinople 
and been baptized by the patriarch. But the nation 
continued pagan, Yladimir was an idolater in grain, 
and a great field lay open for missionary zeal. 

JSTo less than four of the peoples of the south 
sought to make a convert of this powerful prince. 
The Bulgarians endeavored to win him to the re- 
ligion of Mohammed, picturing to him in alluring 
language the charms of their paradise, with its 
lovely houris. But he must give up wine. This 
was more than he was ready to do. 

" Wine is the delight of the Russians/' he said : 
" we cannot do without it." 

The envoys of the Catholic Church, the Greek 
Church, and the Jewish Church also sought to win 
him over. But the Germans, who offered him Ca- 
tholicism, were repelled with the remark that it was 



VLADIMIR THE GREAT. 35 

monstrous that the pope of Eome should set up as a 
deity upon earth. As for the Jews, they had no 
country, and he was not inclined to join hands with 
wanderers under the ban of Heaven. The religion 
of the Greek Church, whose claims were presented 
to him by an advocate from its central city, appealed 
to him most strongly, for had it not been accepted 
by his grandmother, Olga the queen ? 

As may be seen, religion with Yladimir was far 
more a matter of policy than of piety. The gods 
of his fathers, to whom he had done such honor, had 
no abiding place in his heart ; and that belief which 
would be most to his advantage was for him the best. 

To settle the question he sent ten of his chief 
boyars, or nobles, to the south, that they might 
examine and report on the religions of the differ- 
ent countries. They were not long in coming to a 
decision. Mohammedanism and Catholicism, they 
said, they had found only in poor and barbarous prov- 
inces. Judaism had no land to call its own. But the 
G-reek faith dwelt in a magnificent metropolis, and 
its ceremonies were full of pomp and solemnity. 

"If the Greek religion were not the best," they 
said, in conclusion, " Olga, your ancestress, and the 
wisest of mortals, would never have thought of em- 
bracing it." 

Pomp and solemnity won the day, and Yladimir 
determined to follow Olga's example. As to what 
religion meant in itself he seems to have thought 
little and cared less. His method of becoming a 
Christian was so original that it is well worth the 
telling. 



36 HISTORICAL TALES. 

Since the days of Olga Kief had possessed Christian 
churches and priests, and Yladimir might easily have 
been baptized without leaving home. But this was 
far too simple a process for a prince of his dignity. 
He must be baptized by a bishop of the parent 
Church, and the missionaries who were to convert 
his people must come from the central home of the 
faith. 

Should he ask the emperor for the rite of bap- 
tism ? 'Not he ; it would be too much like rendering 
homage to a prince no greater than himself. The 
haughty barbarian found himself in a quandary ; 
but soon he discovered a promising way out of it. 
He would make war on Greece, conquer priests and 
churches, and by force of arms obtain instruction 
and baptism in the new faith. Surely never before 
or since was a war waged with the object of win- 
ning a new religion. 

Gathering a large army, Yladimir marched to the 
Crimea, where stood the rich and powerful Greek 
city of Kherson. The ruins of this city may still 
be seen near the modern Sevastopol. To it he laid 
siege, warning the inhabitants that it would be wise 
in them to yield, for he was prepared to remain 
three years before their walls. 

The Khersonites proved obstinate, and for six 
months he besieged them closely. But no progress 
was made, and it began to look as if Yladimir would 
never become a Christian in his chosen mode. A 
traitor within the walls, however, solved the diffi- 
culty. He shot from the ramparts an arrow to 
which a letter was attached, in which the Eussians 



VLADIMIR THE GREAT. 37 

were told that the city obtained all its fresh water 
from a spring near their camp, to which ran under- 
ground pipes. Yladimir cut the pipes, and the city, 
in peril of the horrors of thirst, was forced to yield. 

Baptism was now to be had from the parent 
source, but Yladimir was still not content. He de- 
manded to be united by ties of blood to the emperors 
of the southern realm, asking for the hand of Anna, 
the emperor's sister, and threatening to take Con- 
stantinople if his proposal were rejected. 

JSTever before had a convert come with such con- 
ditions. The princess Anna had no desire for mar- 
riage with this haughty barbarian, but reasons of 
state were stronger than questions of taste, and the 
emperors (there were two of them at that time) 
yielded. Vladimir, having been baptized under the 
name of Basil, married the princess Anna, and the 
city he had taken as a token of his pious zeal was 
restored to his new kinsmen. All that he took back 
to Eussia with him were a Christian wife, some 
bishops and priests, sacred vessels and books, images 
of saints, and a number of consecrated relics. 

Yladimir displayed a zeal in his new faith in ac- 
cordance with the trouble he had taken to win it. 
The old idols he had worshipped were now the most 
despised inmates of his realm. Perune, as the 
greatest of them all, was treated with the greatest 
indignity. The wooden image of the god was tied 
to the tail of a horse and dragged to the Borysthenes, 
twelve stout soldiers belaboring it with cudgels as it 
went. The banks reached, it was flung with disdain 
into the river. 



38 HISTORICAL TALES. 

At ^N'ovgorod the god was treated with like indig- 
nity, but did not bear it with equal patience. The 
story goes that, being flung from a bridge into the 
Yolkhof, the image of Perune rose to the surface of 
the water, threw a staff upon the bridge, and cried 
out in a terrifying voice, " Citizens, that is what I 
leave you in remembrance of me." 

In consequence of this legend it was long the 
custom in that city, on the day which was kept as 
the anniversary of the god, for the young people to 
run about with sticks in their hands, striking one 
another unawares. 

As for the Russians in general, they discarded 
their old worship as easily as the prince had thrown 
overboard their idols. One day a proclamation was 
issued at Kief, commanding all the people to repair 
to the river-bank the next day, there to be baptized. 
They assented without a murmur, saying, " If it were 
not good to be baptized, the prince and the boyars 
would never submit to it." 

These were not the only signs of Yladimir's zeal. 
He built churches, he gave alms freely, he set out 
public repasts in imitation of the love-feasts of the 
early Christians. His piety went so far that he 
even forbore to shed the blood of criminals or of 
the enemies of his country. 

But horror of bloodshed did not lie long on Yladi- 
mir's conscience. In his later life he had wars in 
plenty, and the blood of his enemies was shed as 
freely as water. These wars were largely against 
the Petchenegans, the most powerful of his foes. 
And in connection with them there is a story extant 



VLADIMIR THE GREAT. 39 

which has its parallel in the history of many another 
country. 

It seems that in one of their campaigns the two 
armies came face to face on the opposite sides of a 
small stream. The prince of the Petchenegans now 
proposed to Yladimir to settle their quarrel by single 
combat and thus spare the lives of their people. 
The side whose champion was vanquished should 
bind itself to a peace lasting for three years. 

Yladimir was loath to consent, as he felt sure that 
his opponents had ready a champion of mighty 
power. He felt forced in honor to accept the chal- 
lenge, but asked for delay that he might select a 
worthy champion. 

Whom to select he knew not. No soldier of su- 
perior strength and skill presented himself Un- 
easiness and agitation filled his mind. But at this 
critical interval an old man, who served in the army 
with four of his sons, came to him, saying that he 
had at home a fifth son of extraordinary strength, 
whom he would offer as champion. 

The young man was sent for in great haste. On 
his arrival, to test his powers, a bull was sent against 
him which had been goaded into fury with hot irons. 
The young giant stopped the raging brute, knocked 
him down, and tore off great handfuls of his skin 
and flesh. Hope came to Vladimir's soul on witness- 
ing this wonderful feat. 

The day arrived. The champions advanced be- 
tween the camps. The Petchenegan warrior laughed 
in scorn on seeing his beardless antagonist. But 
when they came to blows he found himself seized 



40 HISTORICAL TALES. 

and crushed as in a vice in the arms of his boyish 
foe, and was flung, a lifeless body, to the earth. On 
seeing this the Petehenegans fled in dismay, while 
the Eussians, forgetting their pledge, pursued and 
slaughtered them without mercy. 

Yladimir at length (1015 a.d.) came to his end. 
His son Yaroslaf, whom he had made ruler of ^N'ov- 
gorod, had refused to pay tribute, and the old prince, 
forced to march against his rebel son, died of grief 
on the way. 

With all his faults, Yladimir deserved the title of 
Great which his country has given him. He put 
down the turbulent tribes, planted colonies in the 
desert, built towns, and embellished his cities with 
churches, palaces, and other buildings, for which 
workmen were brought from Greece. Eussia grew 
rapidly under his rule. He established schools which 
the sons of the nobles were made to attend. And 
though he was but a poor pattern for a saint, he had 
the merit of finding Eussia pagan and leaving it 
Christian. 




CATHEDRAL AT OSTANKINO, NEAR MOSCOW. 



THE LAWGIVER OF RUSSIA. 

The Eussia of the year 1000 lay deep in the age 
of barbarism. Yladimir had made it Christian in 
name, but it was far from Christian in thought or 
deed. It was a land without fixed laws, without set- 
tled government, without schools, without civilized 
customs, but with abundance of ignorance, cruelty, 
and superstition. 

It was strangely made up. In the north lay the 
great commercial city of Novgorod, which, though 
governed by princes of the house of Eurik, was a re- 
public in form and in fact. It possessed its popular 
assembly, of which every citizen was a member with 
full right to vote, and at whose meetings the prince 
was not permitted to appear. The sound of a famous 
bell, the Yetchevoy, called the people together, to 
decide on questions of peace and war, or to elect 
magistrates, and sometimes the bishop, or even the 
prince. The prince had to swear to carry out the 
ancient laws of the republic and not attempt to lay 
taxes on the citizens or to interfere with their trade. 
They made him gifts, but paid him no taxes. They 
decided how many hours he should give to pleasure 
and how many to business ; and they expelled some 
of their princes who thought themselves beyond the 
power of the laws. 

It seems strange that the absolute Eussia of to-day 

41 



42 HISTORICAL TALES. 

should then have possessed one of the freest of the 
cities of Europe. Novgorod was not only a city, it 
was a state. The provinces far and wide around 
were subject to it, and governed by its prince, who 
had in them an authority much greater than he pos- 
sessed over the proud civic merchants and money 
lords. 

In the south, on the contrary, lay the great im- 
perial city of Kief, the capital of the realm, and the 
seat of a government as arbitrary as that of Nov- 
gorod was free. Here dwelt the grand prince as 
an irresponsible autocrat, making his will the law, 
and forcing all the provinces, even haughty Novgo- 
rod, to pay a tax which bore the slavish title of 
tribute. Here none could vote, no assembly of citi- 
zens ever met, and the only restraint on the prince 
was that of his warlike and turbulent nobles, who 
often forced him to yield to their wishes. The gov- 
ernment was a drifting rather than a settled one. 
It had no anchors out, but was moved about at the 
whim of the prince and his unruly lords. 

Under these two forms of government lay still 
a third. Eural Eussia was organized on a demo- 
cratic principle which still prevails throughout that 
broad land. This is the principle of the Mir, or vil- 
lage community, which moat of the people of the 
earth once possessed, but which has everywhere 
passed away except in Eussia and India. It is the 
principle of the commune, of public instead of pri- 
vate property. The land of a Eussian village belongs 
to the people as a whole, not to individuals. It is 
divided up among them for tillage, but no man can 



THE LAWGIVER OF RUSSIA. 43 

claim the fields he tills as his own, and for thousands 
of years what is known as communism has prevailed 
on Eussian soil. 

The government of the village is purely democratic. 
All the people meet and vote for their village magis- 
trate, who decides, with the aid of a council of the 
elders, all the questions which arise within its con- 
fines, one of them being the division of the land. 
Thus at bottom Russia is a field sown thick with little 
communistic republics, though at top it is a despot- 
ism. The government of Novgorod doubtless grew 
out of that of the village. The republican city has 
long since passed away, but the seed of democracy 
remains planted deeply in the village community. 

All this is preliminary to the story of the Eussian 
lawgiver and his laws, which we have set out to tell. 
This famous person was no other than that Yaroslaf, 
prince of Novgorod, and son of Yladimir the Great, 
whose refusal to pay tribute had caused his father to 
die of grief. 

Yaroslaf was the fifth able ruler of the dynasty 
of Eurik. The story of his young life resembles 
that of his father. He found his brother strong and 
threatening, and designed to fly from Novgorod and 
join the Yarangians as a viking lord, as his father 
had done before him. But the Novgorodians proved 
his friends, destroyed the ships that were to carry 
him away, and provided him with money to raise a 
new army. With this he defeated his base brother, 
who had already killed or driven into exile all their 
other brothers. The result was that Yaroslof, like 
his father, became sovereign of all Eussia. 



44 HISTORICAL TALES. 

But though this new grand prince extended his 
dominions by the sword, it was not as a soldier, but 
as a legislator, that he won fame. His genius was 
not shown on the field of battle, but in the legislative 
council, and Russia reveres Yaroslaf the Wise as its 
first maker of laws. 

The free institutions of Novgorod, of wbich we 
have spoken, were by him sustained and strength- 
ened. Many new cities were founded under his be- 
neficent rule. Schools were widely established, in one 
of which three hundred of the youth of Novgorod 
were educated. A throng of Grreek priests were 
invited into the land, since there were none of Eus- 
sian birth to whom he could confide the duty of 
teaching the young. He gave toleration to the idol- 
aters who still existed, and when the people of Suz- 
dal were about to massacre some hapless women 
whom they accused of having brought on a famine 
by sorcery, he stayed their hands and saved the 
poor victims from death. The Russian Church owed 
its first national foundation to him, for he declared 
that the bishops of the land should no longer depend 
for appointment on the Patriarch of Constantinople. 

There are no startling or dramatic stories to be 
told about Yaroslaf The heroes of peace are not 
the men who make the world's dramas. But it is 
pleasant, after a season spent with princes who lived 
for war and revenge, and who even made war to 
obtain baptism, to rest awhile under the green boughs 
and beside the pleasant waters of a reign that became 
famous for the triumphs of peace. 

Under Yaroslaf Russia united itself by ties of 



THE LAWGIVER OF RUSSIA. 45 

blood to Western Europe. His sons married Greek, 
German, and English princesses ; his sister became 
queen of Poland ; his three daughters were queens 
of Norway, Hungary, and France. Scandinavian in 
origin, the dynasty of Eurik was reaching out hands 
of brotherhood towards its kinsmen in the West. 

But it is as a law-maker that Yaroslaf is chiefly 
known. Before his time the empire had no fixed 
code of laws. To say that it was without law would 
not be correct. Every people, however ignorant, 
has its laws of custom, unwritten edicts, the birth 
of the ages, which have grown up stage by stage, 
and which are only slowly outgrown as the tribe de- 
velops into the nation. 

Eussia had, besides Novgorod, other commercial 
cities, with republican institutions. Kief was cer- 
tainly not without law. And the many tribes of 
hunters, shepherds, and farmers must have had their 
legal customs. But with all this there was no code 
for the empire, no body of written laws. The first 
of these was prepared about 1018 by Yaroslaf, for 
Novgorod alone, but in time became the law of all 
the land. This early code of Eussian law is a re- 
markable one, and goes farther than history at large 
in teaching us the degree of civilization of Eussia at 
that date. 

In connection with it the chronicles tell a curious 
story. In 1018, we are told, Novgorod, having grown 
weary of the insults and oppression of its Varangian 
lords and warriors, killed them all. Angry at this, 
Yaroslaf enticed the leading Novgorodians into his 
palace and slaughtered them in reprisal. But at 



46 HISTORICAL TALES. 

this critical interval, when his guards were slain 
and his subjects in rebellion, he found himself 
threatened by his ambitious brother. In despair 
he turned to the Novgorodians and begged with 
tears for pardon and assistance. They forgave and 
aided him, and by their help made him sovereign of 
the empire. 

How far this is true it is impossible to say, but the 
code of Yaroslaf was promulgated at that date, and 
the rights given to Novgorod showed that its people 
held the reins of power. It confirmed the city in 
the ancient liberties of which we have already 
spoken, giving it a freedom which no other city of 
its time surpassed. And it laid down a series of laws 
for the people at large which seem very curious in 
this enlightened age. It must suffice to give the 
leading features of this ancient code. 

It began by sustaining the right of private ven- 
geance. The law was for the weak alone, the strong 
being left to avenge their own wrongs. The punish- 
ment of crime was provided for by judicial combats, 
which the law did not even regulate. Every strong 
man was a law unto himself 

Where no avengers of crime appeared, murder 
was to be settled by fines. For the murder of a 
boyar eighty grivnas were to be paid, and forty for 
the murder of a free Russian, but only half as much 
if the victim was a woman. Here we have a stand- 
ard of value for the women of that age. 

Nothing was paid into the treasury for the murder 
of a slave, but his master had to be paid his value, 
unless he had been slain for insulting a freeman. His 



THE LAWGIVER OF RUSSIA. 47 

value was reckoned according to his occupation, and 
ranged from twelve to five grivnas. 

If it be asked what was the value of a grivna, it 
may be said that at that time there was little coined 
money, perhaps none at all, in Eussia. Gold and 
silver were circulated by weight, and the common 
currency was composed of pieces of skin, called kuni. 
A grivna was a certain number of kunis equal in 
value to half a pound of silver, but the kuni often 
varied in value. 

All prisoners of war and all persons bought from 
foreigners were condemned to perpetual slavery. 
Others became slaves for limited periods, — freemen 
who married slaves, insolvent debtors, servants out 
of employment, and various other classes. As the 
legal interest of money was forty per cent., the en- 
slavement of debtors must have been very common, 
and Eussia was even then largely a land of slaves. 

The loss of a limb was fined almost as severely 
as that of a life. To pluck out part of the beard 
cost four times as much as to cut off a finger, and 
insults in general were fined four times as heavily as 
wounds. Horse-stealing was punished by slavery. 
In discovering the guilty the ordeals of red-hot iron 
and boiling water were in use, as in the countries of 
the West. 

There were three classes in the nation, — slaves, 
freemen, and boyars, or nobles, the last being proba- 
bly the descendants of Eurik's warriors. The prince 
was the heir of all citizens who died without male 
children, except of boyars and the ofBlcers of his 
guard. 



48 HISTORICAL TALES. 

These laws, which were little more primitive than 
those of Western Europe at the same period, seem 
never to have imposed corporal punishment for 
crime. Injury was made good by cash, except in 
the case of the combat. The fines went to the lord 
or prince, and were one of his means of support, the 
other being tribute from his estates. J^o provision 
for taxation was made. The mark of dependence on 
the prince was military service, the lord, as in the 
feudal West, being obliged to provide his own arms, 
provisions, and mounted followers. 

Judges there were, who travelled on circuits, and 
who impanelled twelve respectable jurors, sworn to 
give just verdicts. There are several laws extend- 
ing protection to property, fixed and movable, which 
seem specially framed for the merchants of Nov. 
gorod. 

Such are the leading features of the code of Ya- 
roslaf. The franchises granted the Novgorodians, 
which for four centuries gave them the right to " life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," form part of 
it. Crude as are many of its provisions, it forms a 
vital starting-point, that in which Eussia first came 
under definite in place of indefinite law. And the 
bringing about of this important change is the glory 
of Yaroslaf the Wise. 



THE YOKE OF THE TARTARS. 

In Asia, the greatest continent of the earth, lies 
its most extensive plain, the vast plateau of Mongolia, 
vrhose true boundaries are the mountains of Siberia 
and the Himalayan highlands, the Pacific Ocean and 
the hills of Eastern Europe, and of which the great 
plain of Eussia is but an outlying section. This 
mighty plateau, largely a desert, is the home of the 
nomad shepherd and warrior, the nesting-place of 
the emigrant invader. From these broad levels in 
the past horde after horde of savage horsemen rode 
over Europe and Asia, — the frightful Huns, the de- 
vastating Turks, the desolating Mongols. It is with 
the last that we are here concerned, for Eussia fell 
beneath their arms, and was held for two centuries as 
a captive realm. 

The nomads are born warriors. They live on 
horseback; the care of their great herds teaches 
them military discipline ; they are always in motion, 
have no cities to defend, no homes to abandon, no 
crops to harvest. Their home is a camp ; when 
they move it moves with them ; their food is on the 
hoof and accompanies them on the march ; they can 
go hungry for a week and then eat like cormorants ; 
their tools are weapons, always in hand, always 
ready to use; a dozen times they have burst like 

4 49 



50 HISTORICAL TALES. 

a devouring torrent from their desert and over- 
whelmed the South and West. 

While the Turks were still engaged in their work 
of conquest, the Mongols arose, and under the for- 
midable Genghis Khan swept over Southern Asia 
like a tornado, leaving death and desolation in their 
track. The conqueror died in 1227, — for death is a foe 
that vanquishes even the greatest of warriors, — and 
was succeeded by his son Octoi, as Great Khan of 
the Mongols and Tartars. In 1235, Baton, nephew 
of the khan, was sent with an army of half a mil- 
lion men to the conquest of Europe. 

This flood of barbarians fell upon Eussia at an un- 
fortunate time, one of anarchy and civil war, when 
the whole nation was rent and torn and there were 
almost as many sovereigns as there were cities. The 
system of giving a separate dominion to every son 
of a grand prince had ruined Eussia. These small 
potentates were constantly at war, confusion reigned 
supreme. Kief was taken and degraded and a new 
capital, Yladimir, established, and Moscow, which 
was to become the fourth capital of Eussia, was 
founded. Such was the state of affairs when Ba- 
ton, with his vast horde of savage horsemen, fell on 
the distracted realm. 

Defence was almost hopeless. Eussia had no gov- 
ernment, no army, no imperial organization. Each 
city stood for itself, with great widths of open 
country around. Over these broad spaces the in- 
vaders swept like an avalanche, finding cultivated 
fields before them, leaving a desert behind. They 
swam the Don, the Yolga, and the other great rivers 



THE YOKE OF THE TARTARS. 51 

on their horses, or crossed them on the ice. Leathern 
boats brought over their wagons and artillery. They 
spread from Livonia to the Black Sea, poured into 
the kingdoms of the West, and would have over- 
run all Europe but for the vigorous resistance of 
the knighthood of GJ-ermany. 

The cities of Eussia made an obstinate defence, 
but one after another they fell. Some saved them- 
selves by surrender. Most of them were taken by 
assault and destroyed. City after city was reduced 
to ashes, none of the inhabitants being left to de- 
plore their fall. The nomads had no use for cities. 
Walls were their enemies: pasturage was all they 
cared for. The conversion of a country into a desert 
was to them a gain rather than a loss, for grass will 
grow in the desert, and grass to feed their horses 
and herds was what they most desired. 

So far as the warriors of Mongolia were concerned, 
their conquests left them no better off. They still 
had to tend and feed their herds, and they could 
have done that as well in their native land. But 
the leaders had the lust of dominion, their followers 
the blood-fury, and inspired by these feelings they 
ravaged the world. 

One thing alone saved Eussia from being peopled 
by Tartars, — its climate. This was not to t h eir liking, 
and they preferred to dwell in lands better suited to 
their tastes and habits. The great Tartar empire of 
Kaptchak, or the Golden Horde, was founded on the 
eastern frontier; other khanates were founded in 
the south ; but the Eussian princes were left to 
rule in the remainder of the land, under tribute to 



52 HISTORICAL TALES. 

the khans, to whom they were forced to do homage. 
In truth, these Tartar chiefs made themselves lords 
paramount of the Eussian realm, and no prince, 
great or small, could assume the government of his 
state until he had journeyed to Central Mongolia to 
beg permission to rule from the khan of the Great 
Horde. 

The subjection of the princes was that of slaves. 
A century afterward they were obliged to spread a 
carpet of sable fur under the hoofs of the steed of 
the khan's envoy, to prostrate themselves at his feet 
and learn his mission on their knees, and not only to 
present a cup of koumiss to the barbarian, but even 
to lick from the neck of his horse the drops of the 
beverage which he might let fall in drinking. More 
shameful subjection it would be difficult to describe. 

Several princes who proved insubordinate were 
summoned to the camp of the Horde and there tried 
and executed. Eivals sought the khan, to buy power 
by presents. During their journeys, which occupied 
a year or more, the Tartar bashaks ruled their domin- 
ions. Tartar armies aided the princes in their civil 
wars, and helped these ambitious lords to keep their 
country in a state of subjection. 

Fortunately for Russia, the great empire of the 
Mongols gradually fell to pieces of its own weight. 
The Kaptchak, or Golden Horde, broke loose from 
the Great Horde, and Russia had a smaller power to 
deal with. The Golden Horde itself broke into two 
parts. And among the many princes of Russia a 
grand prince was still acknowledged, with right by 
title to dominion over the entire realm. 



THE YOKE OF THE TARTARS. 53 

One of these grand princes, Alexander by name, 
son of the grand prince of Yladimir, proved a great 
warrior and statesman and gained the power as well 
as the title. Prince of Novgorod by inheritance, he 
defeated all his enemies, drove the Germans from 
Eussia, and recovered the Neva from the Swedes, 
which feat of arms gained him the title of Alexander 
Nevsky. The Tartars were too powerful to be at- 
tacked, so he managed to gain their good will. The 
khan became his friend, and when trouble arose 
with Kief and Yladimir their princes were dethroned 
and these principalities given to the shrewd grand 
prince. 

Eussia seemed to be rehabilitated. Alexander was 
lord of its three capitals, Novgorod, Kief, and Yladi- 
mir, and grand prince of the realm. But the Eussians 
were not content to submit either to his authority or 
to the yoke of the Tartars. His whole life was spent 
in battle with them, or in journeys to the tent of the 
khan to beg forgiveness for their insults. 

The climax came when the Tartar collectors of 
tribute were massacred in some cities and ignomin- 
iously driven out of others. When these acts be- 
came known at the Horde the angry khan sent 
orders for the grand prince and all other Eussian 
princes to appear before him and to bring all their 
troops. He said that he was about to make a cam- 
paign, and needed the aid of the Eussians. 

This story Alexander did not believe. He plainly 
perceived that the wily Tartar wished to deprive 
Eussia of all its armed men, that he might the more 
easily reduce it again to subjection. Eather than see 



54 HISTORICAL TALES. 

his country ruined, the patriotic prince determined to 
disobey, and to offer himself as a victim by seeking 
alone the camp of Usbek, the great khan, a mission 
of infinite danger. 

He hoped that his submission might save Eussia 
from ruin, though he knew that death lay on his 
path. He found Usbek bitterly bent on war, and 
for a whole year was kept in the camp of the Horde, 
seeking to appease the wrath of the barbarian. In 
the end he succeeded, the khan promising to forgive 
the Eussians and desist from the intended war, and 
in the year 1262 Alexander started for home again. 

He had seemingly escaped, but not in reality. He 
had not journeyed far before he suddenly died. To 
all appearance, poison had been mingled with his 
food before he left the camp of the khan. Alex- 
ander had become too great and powerful at home 
for the designs of the conquerors. He died the vic- 
tim of his love of country. His people have recog- 
nized his virtue by making him a saint. He had 
not labored in vain. In his hands the grand prince- 
ship had been restored, Vladimir had become su- 
preme, and a centre had been established around 
which the Eussians might rally. But for a century 
and more still they were to remain subject to the 
Tartar yoke. 



THE VICTORY OF THE DON, 

The history of Eussia during the century after 
the Mongol conquest is one of shame and anarchj'-. 
The shame was that of slavish submission to the 
Tartar khan. Each prince, in succession, fell on 
his knees before this high dignitary of the bar- 
barians and begged or bought his throne. The 
anarchy was that of the Russian princes, on which 
the khan looked with winking eyes, thinking that 
the more they weakened themselves the more they 
would strengthen him. The rulers of Moscow, 
Tver, Yladimir, and E'ovgorod fought almost inces- 
santly for supremacy, crushing their people beneath 
the feet of their ambition, now one, now another, 
gaining the upper hand. 

In the end the princes of Moscow became supreme. 
They grew rich, and were able to keep up a regular 
army, that chief tool of despotism. The crown 
lands alone gave them dominion over three hundred 
thousand subjects. The time was coming in which 
they would be the absolute rulers of all Russia. 
But before this could be accomplished the power of 
the khans must be broken, and the first step towards 
this was taken by the great Dmitri Donskoi, who 
became grand prince of Moscow in 1362. 

Dmitri came to the throne at a fortunate epoch. 
The Golden Horde was breaking to pieces. There 

65 



56 HISTORICAL TALES. 

were several khans, at war with one another, and 
discord ruled among the overlords of Eussia. Still 
greater discord reigned in Eussia itself. For eighteen 
years Dmitri was kept busy in wars with the princes 
of Tver, Kief, and Lithuania. Terrible was the war 
with Tver. Four times he overcame Michael, its 
prince. Four times did Michael, aided by the prince 
of Lithuania, gain the victory. During this ob- 
stinate conflict Moscow was twice besieged. Only 
its stone walls, lately built, saved it from capture 
and ruin. At length Olguerd, the fiery prince of 
Lithuania, died, and Tver yielded, Moscow became 
paramount among the Eussian principalities. 

And now Dmitri, with all Eussia as his realm, 
dared to defy the terrible Tartars. For more than 
a century no Eussian prince had ventured to appear 
before the khan of the Golden Horde except on his 
knees. Dmitri had thus humbled himself only three 
years before. Kow, inflated with his new power, he 
refused to pay tribute to the khan, and went so far 
as to put to death the Tartar envoy, who insolently 
demanded the accustomed payment. 

Dmitri had burned his bridges behind him. He 
had flung down the gage of war to the Tartars, 
and would soon feel their hand in all its dreaded 
strength. The khan, on hearing of the murder of 
his ambassador, burst into a terrible rage. The 
civil wars which divided the Golden Horde had for 
the time ceased, and Mamai, the khan, gathered all 
the power of the Horde and marched on defiant 
Moscow, vowing to sweep that rebel city from the 
face of the earth. 



THE VICTORY OP THE DON. 57 

The Eussians did not wait his coming. All dis- 
sensions ceased in the face of the impending peril, 
all the princes sent aid, and Dmitri marched to the 
Don at the head of an army of two hundred thou- 
sand men. Here he found the redoubtable Mamai 
with three times that number of the fierce Tartar 
horsemen in his train. 

" Yonder lies the foe," said Dmitri to his princely 
associates. "Here runs the Don. Shall we await 
him here, or cross and meet him with the river at 
our backs ?" 

" Let us cross," was the unanimous verdict. " Let 
us be first in the assault." 

At once the order was given, and the battalions 
marched on board the boats and were ferried across 
the stream, at a short distance from the opposite 
bank of which the enemy lay. No sooner had they 
landed than Dmitri ordered all the boats to be cast 
adrift. It was to be victory or death ; no hope of 
escape by flight was left; but well he knew that 
the men would fight with double valor under such 
desperate straits. 

The battle began. On the serried Russian ranks 
the Tartars poured in that impetuous assault which 
had so often carried their hosts to victory. The 
Russians defended themselves with fiery valor, assault 
after assault was repulsed, and so fiercely was the 
field contested that multitudes of the fallen were 
trampled to death beneath the horses' feet. At 
length, however, numbers began to tell. The Rus- 
sians grew weary from the closeness of the conflict. 
The vast host of the Tartars enabled them to replace 



58 HISTORICAL TALES. 

with fresh troops all that were worn in the fight. 
Victory seemed about to perch upon their banners. 

Dismay crept into the Eussian ranks. They would 
have broken in flight, but no avenue of escape was 
left. The river ran behind them, unruffled by a boat. 
Flight meant death by drowning ; fight meant death 
by the sword. Of the two the latter seemed best, 
for the Eussians firmly believed that death at the 
hands of the infidels meant an immediate transport 
to the heavenly mansions of bliss. 

At this critical moment, when the host of Dmitri 
was wavering between panic and courage, the men 
ready to drop their swords through sheer fatigue, an 
unlooked-for diversion inspired their shrinking souls. 
The grand prince had stationed a detachment of his 
army as a reserve, and these, as yet, had taken no 
part in the battle. Now, fresh and furious, they were 
brought up, and fell vigorously upon the rear of the 
Tartars, who, filled with sudden terror, thought that 
a new army had come to the aid of the old. A 
moment later they broke and fled, pursued by their 
triumphant foes, and falling fast as they hurried in 
panic fear from the encrimsoned field. 

Something like amazement filled the souls of the 
Eussians as they saw their dreaded enemies in flight. 
Such a consummation they had scarcely dared hope 
for, accustomed as they had been for a century to 
crouch before this dreadful foe. They had bought 
their victory dearly. Their dead strewed the ground 
by thousands. Yet to be victorious over the Tartar 
host seemed to them an ample recompense for an 
even greater loss than that sustained. Eight days 



THE VICTORY OP THE DON. 59 

were occupied by the survivors in burying the slain. 
As for the Tartar dead, they were left to fester on 
the field. Such was the great victory of the Don, 
from which Dmitri gained his honorable surname 
of Donskoi. He died nine years afterwards (1389), 
having won the high honor of being the first to van- 
quish the terrible horsemen of the Steppes, firmly 
founded the authority of the grand princes, and 
made Moscow the paramount power in Eussia, 



IVAN, THE FIRST OF THE CZARS. 

The victory of the Don did not free Eussia from 
the Tartar yoke. Two years afterwards the princi- 
paUty of Moscow was overrun and ravaged by a 
lieutenant of the mighty Tamerlane, the all-con- 
quering successor of Genghis Khan. Several times 
Moscow was taken and burned. Full seventy years 
later, at the court of the Golden Horde, two Eussian 
princes might have been seen disputing before the 
great khan the possession of the grand principality 
and tremblingly awaiting his decision. Neverthe- 
less, the battle of the Don had sounded the knell of 
the Tartar power. Anarchy continued to prevail in 
the Golden Horde. The power of the grand princes 
of Moscow steadily grew. The khans themselves 
played into the hands of their foes. Eussia was 
slowly but surely casting off her fetters, and deliver- 
ance was at hand. 

Ivan III., great-grandson of Dmitri Donskoi, as- 
cended the throne in 1462, nearly two centuries and 
a half after the Tartar invasion. During all that 
period Eussia had been the vassal of the khans. 
Only now was its freedom to come. It was by craft, 
more than by war, that Ivan won. In the field he 
was a dastard, but in subtlety and perfidy he sur- 
passed all other men of his time, and his insidious but 
60 



IVAN, THE FIRST OF THE CZARS. 61 

persistent policy ended by making him the autocrat 
of all the Eussias. 

He found powerful enemies outside his dominions, 
— the Tartars, the Lithuanians, and the Poles. He 
succeeded in defeating them all. He had powerful 
rivals within the domain of Eussia. These also he 
overcame. He made Moscow all-powerful, imitated 
the tyranny of the Tartars, and founded the auto- 
cratic rule of the czars which has ever since pre- 
vailed. 

The story of the fall of the Golden Horde may be 
briefly told. It was the work of the Eussian army, 
but not of the Eussian prince. In 1469, after col- 
lecting a large army, Ivan halted and began nego- 
tiating. But the army was not to be restrained. 
Disregarding the orders of their general, they chose 
another leader, and assailed and captured Kasan, the 
chief Tartar city. As for the army of the Golden 
Horde, it was twice defeated by the Eussian force. 
In 1480 a third invasion of the Tartars took place, 
which resulted in the annihilation of their force. 

The tale, as handed down to us, is a curious one. 
The army, full of martial ardor, had advanced as far 
as the Oka to meet the Tartars ; but on the approach 
of the enemy Ivan, stricken with terror, deserted his 
troops and took refuge in far-off Moscow. He even 
recalled his son, but the brave boy refused to obey, 
saying that " he would rather die at his post than 
follow the example of his father." 

The murmurs of the people, the supplication of 
the priests, the indignation of the boyars, forced him 
to return to the army, but he returned only to cover 



62 HISTORICAL TALES. 

it with shame and himself with disgrace. For when 
the chill of the coming winter suddenly froze the 
river between the two forces, offering the foe a firm 
pathway to battle, Ivan, in consternation, ordered a 
retreat, which his haste converted into a disorderly 
flight. Yet the army was two hundred thousand 
strong and had not struck a blow. 

Fortune and his allies saved the dastard monarch. 
For at this perilous interval the khan of the Crimea, 
an ally of Eussia, attacked the capital of the Golden 
Horde and forced a hasty recall of its army; and 
during its disorderly homeward march a host of 
Cossacks fell upon it with such fury that it was 
totally destroyed. Eussia, threatened with a new 
subjection to the Tartars by the cowardice of its 
monarch, was finally freed from these dreaded foes 
through the aid of her allies. 

But the fruits of this harvest, sown by others, 
were reaped by the czar. His people, who bad 
been disgusted with his cowardice, now gave him 
credit for the deepest craft and wisdom. All this 
had been- prepared by him, they said. His flight 
was a ruse, his pusillanimity was prudence ; he had 
made the Tartars their own destroyers, without 
risking the fate of Eussia in a battle ; and what had 
just been contemned as dastard baseness was now 
praised as undiluted wisdom. 

Ivan would never have gained the title of Great 
from his deeds in war. He won it, and with some 
justice, from his deeds in peace. He was great in 
diplomacy, great in duplicity, great in that persistent 
pursuit of a single object through which men rise to 



IVAN, THE FIRST OP THE CZARS. 63 

power and fame. This object, in his case, was auto- 
cracy. It was his purpose to crush out the last 
shreds of freedom from Eussia, establish an empire 
on the pernicious pattern of a Tartar khanate, which 
had so long been held up as an example before Eus- 
sian eyes, and make the Prince of Moscow as absolute 
as the Emperor of China. He succeeded. During 
his reign freedom fled from Eussia. It has never 
since returned. 

The story of how this great aim was accomplished 
is too long to be told here, and the most important 
part of it must be left for our next tale. It will 
suffice, at this point, to say that by astute policy and 
good fortune Ivan added to his dominions nineteen 
thousand square miles of territory and four millions 
of subjects, made himself supreme autocrat and his 
voice the sole arbiter of fate, reduced the boyars and 
subordinate princes to dependence on his throne, 
established a new and improved system of adminis- 
tration in all the details of government, and by his 
marriage with Sophia, the last princess of the Greek 
imperial family, — driven by the Turks from Con- 
stantinople to Eome, — gained for his standard the 
two-headed eagle, the symbol of autocracy, and for 
himself the supreme title of czar. 



THE FALL OF NOVGOROD THE 
GREAT. 

The Czar of Eussia is the one political deity in 
Europe, the sole absolute autocrat. More than a 
hundred millions of people have delivered themselves 
over, fettered hand and foot, almost body and soul, 
to the ownership of one man, without a voice in 
their own government, without daring to speak, 
hardly daring to think, otherwise than he approves. 
Thousands of them, millions of them, perhaps, are 
saying to-day, in the words of Hamlet, " It is not 
and it cannot come to good; but break my heart, 
for I must hold my tongue." 

Who is this man, this god of a nation, that he 
should loom so high ? Is he a marvel of wisdom, 
virtue, and nobility, made by nature to wear the 
purple, fashioned of porcelain clay, greater and 
better than all the host to whom his word is the 
voice of fate? By no means ; thousands of his sub- 
jects tower far above him in virtue and ability, but, 
puppet-like, the noblest and best of them must dance 
as he pulls the strings, and hardly a man in Russia 
dares to say that his soul is his own if the czar says 
otherwise. 

Such a state of affairs is an anachronism in the 
nineteenth century, a hideous relic of the barbarism 
and anarchy of mediaeval times. In America, where 
64 



THE PALL OF NOVGOROD THE GREAT. 65 

every man is a czar, so far as the disposal of himself 
is concerned, the enslavement of the Eussians seems 
a frightful disregard of the rights of man, the nation 
a giant Gulliver bound down to the earth by chains 
of creed and custom, of bureaucracy and perverted 
public opinion. Like Gulliver, it was bound when 
asleep, and it must continue fettered while its intel- 
lect remains torpid. Some day it will awake, stretch 
its mighty limbs, burst its feeble bonds, and hurl in 
disarray to the earth the whole host of liliputian 
officials and dignitaries who are strutting in the 
pride of ownership on its great body, the czar tum- 
bling first from his great estate. 

This does not seem a proper beginning to a story 
from Eussian history, but, to quote from Shakespeare 
again, " Thereby hangs a tale." The history of Eus- 
sia has, in fact, been a strange one ; it began as a 
republic, it has ended as a despotism ; and we cannot 
go on with our work without attempting to show how 
this came about. 

It was the Mongol invasion that enslaved Eussia. 
Helped by the khans, Moscow gradually rose to su- 
premacy over all the other principalities, trod them 
one by one under her feet, gained power by the aid 
of Tartar swords and spears or through sheer dread 
of the Tartar name, and when the Golden Horde 
was at length overthrown the Grand Prince took the 
place of the Great Khan and ruled with the same 
absolute sway. It was the absolutism of Asia im- 
ported into Europe. Step by step the princes of 
Moscow had copied the system of the khan. This 
work was finished by Ivan the Great, at once the 

5 



66 HISTORICAL TALES. 

deliverer and the enslaver of Eussia, who freed that 
country from the yoke of the khan, but laid upon 
it a heavier burden of servility and shame. 

Under the khan there had been insurrection. 
Under the czar there was subjection. The latter 
state was worse than the former. The subjection 
continues still, but the spirit of insurrection is again 
rising. The time is coming in which the rule of that 
successor of the Tartar khan, miscalled the czar, 
will end, and the people take into their own hands 
the control of their bodies and souls. 

There were republics in Eussia even in Ivan's day, 
free cities which, though governed by princes, main- 
tained the republican institutions of the past. Chief 
among these was Novgorod, that Novgorod the Great 
which invited Eurik into Eussia and under him be- 
came the germ of the vast Eussian empire. A free 
city then, a free city it continued. Eurik and his de- 
scendants ruled by sufferance. Yaroslaf confirmed 
the free institutions which Eurik had respected. 
For centuries this great commercial city continued 
prosperous and free, becoming in time a member of 
the powerful Hanseatic League. Only for the in- 
vasion of the Mongols, Novgorod instead of Moscow 
might have become the prototype of modern Eussia, 
and a republic instead of a despotism have been es- 
tablished in that mighty land. The sword of the 
Tartar cast into the scales overweighted the balance. 
It gave Moscow the supremacy, and liberty fell. 

Ivan the Great, in his determined effort to subject 
all Eussia to his autocratic sway, saw before him 
three republican communities, the free cities of Nov- 



THE FALL OF NOVGOROD THE GREAT. 67 

gorod, Yiatka, and Pskof, and took steps to sweep 
these last remnants of ancient freedom from his 
path. Novgorod, as much the most important of 
these, especially demands our attention. With its 
fall Eussian liberty fell to the earth. 

At that time JS'ovgorod was one of the richest and 
most powerful cities of the earth. It was an ally 
rather than a subject of Moscow, and all the north 
of Eussia was under its sway and contributed to its 
wealth. But luxury had sapped its strength, and it 
held its liberties more by purchase than by courage. 
Some of these liberties had already been lost, seized 
by the grand prince. The proud burghers chafed 
under this invasion of their time-honored privileges, 
and in 1471, inspired by the seeming timidity of 
Ivan, they determined to regain them. 

It was a woman that brought about the revolt. 
Marfa, a rich and influential widow of the city, had 
fallen in love with a Lithuanian, and, inspired at 
once by the passions of love and ambition, sought 
to attach her country to that of her lover. She 
opened her palace to the citizens and lavished on 
them her treasures, seeking to inspire them with her 
own views. Her efforts w^ere successful : the officers 
of the grand prince were driven out, and his domains 
seized; and when he threatened reprisal they broke 
into open revolt, and bound themselves by treaty to 
Casimir, prince of Lithuania. 

But events were to prove that the turbulent citi- 
zens were no match for the crafty Ivan, who moved 
slowly but ever steadily to his goal, and made secure 
each footstep before taking a step in advance. His 



68 HISTORICAL TALES. 

insidious policy roused three separate hostilities 
against Novgorod. The pride of the nobles was 
stirred up against its democracy ; the greed of the 
princes made them eager to seize its wealth; the 
fanatical people were taught that this great city was 
an apostate to the faith. 

These hostile forces proved too much for the city 
against which they were directed. Novgorod was 
taken and plundered, though Ivan did not yet de- 
prive it of its liberties. He had powerful princes to 
deal with, and did not dare to seize so rich a prey 
without letting them share the spoil. But he ruined 
the city by devastation and plunder, deprived it of 
its tributaries, the city and territory of Perm, and 
turned from Novgorod to Moscow the rich com- 
merce of this section. Taking advantage of some 
doubtful words in the treaty of submission, he held 
himself to be legislator and supreme judge of the 
captive city. Such was the first result of the advice 
of an ambitious woman. 

The next step of the autocrat added to his in- 
fluence. Novgorod being threatened with an attack 
from Livonia, he sent thither troops and envoys to 
fight and negotiate in his name, thus taking from 
the cit}^, whose resources he had already drained, its 
old right of making peace and war. 

The ill feeling between the rich and the poor of 
Novgorod was fomented by his agents ; all complaints 
were required to be made to him; he still further 
impoverished the rich by the presents and magnifi- 
cent receptions which his presence among them de- 
manded, and dazzled the eyes of the people by the 



THE FALL OF NOVGOROD THE GREAT. 69 

Oriental state and splendor which had been adopted 
by the court of Moscow, and which he displayed in 
their midst. 

The nobles who had formerly been his enemies 
now became his victims. He had induced the people 
to denounce them, and at once seized them and sent 
them in chains to Moscow. The people, blinded by 
this seeming attention to their complaints, remained 
heedless of the violation of the ancient law of their 
republic, " that none of its citizens should ever be 
tried or punished out of the limits of its own terri- 
tory." 

Thus tyranny made its slow way. The citizens, 
once governed and judged by their own peers, now 
made their appeals to the grand prince and were 
summoned to appear before his tribunal. " Never 
since Eurik," say the annals, " had such an event 
happened ; never had the grand princes of Kief and 
Yladimir seen the Novgorodians come and submit to 
them as their judges. Ivan alone could reduce Nov- 
gorod to that degree of humiliation." 

This work was done with the deliberation of a 
settled policy. Ivan did not molest Marfa, who had 
instigated the revolt ; his sentences were just and 
equitable ; men were blinded by his seeming modera- 
tion ; and for full seven years he pursued his insidious 
way, gradually weaning the people from their ancient 
customs, and taking advantage of every imprudence 
and thoughtless concession on their part to ground on 
it a claim to increased authority. 

It was the glove of silk he had thus far extended 
to them. Within it lay concealed the hand of iron. 



70 HISTORICAL TALES. 

The grasp of the iron hand was made when, during an 
audience, the envoy of the republic, through treason 
or thoughtlessness, addressed him by the name of 
sovereign (Gosudar, " liege lord," instead of Gospodin, 
" master," the usual title). 

Ivan, taking advantage of this, at once claimed 
all the absolute rights which custom had attached to 
that title. He demanded that the republic should 
take an oath to him as its judge and legislator, re- 
ceive his boyars as their rulers, and yield to them 
the ancient palace of Yaroslaf, the sacred temple of 
their liberties, in which for more than five centuries 
their assemblies had been held. 

This demand roused the J^ovgorodians to their 
danger. They saw how blindly they had yielded to 
tyranny. A transport of indignation inspired them. 
For the last time the great bell of liberty sent forth 
its peal of alarm. Gathering tumultuously at the 
palace from which they were threatened with expul- 
sion, they vigorously resolved, — 

" Ivan is in fact our lord, but he shall never be 
our sovereign ; the tribunal of his deputies may sit 
at Goroditch, but never at J^ovgorod : Novgorod is, 
and always shall be, its own judge." 

In their rage they murdered several of the nobles 
whom they suspected of being friends of the tyrant. 
The envoy who had uttered the imprudent word was 
torn to pieces by their furious hands. They ended 
by again invoking the aid of Lithuania. 

On hearing of this outbreak the despot feigned 
surprise. Groans broke from his lips, as if he felt 
that he had been basely used. His complaints were 



THE FALL OP NOVGOROD THE GREAT. 71 

loud, and the calling in of a foreign power was 
brought against Novgorod as a frightful aggravation 
of its crime. Under cover of these groans and com- 
plaints an army was gathered to which all the prov- 
inces of the empire were forced to send contingents. 

These warlike preparations alarmed the citizens. 
All Eussia seemed arrayed against them, and they 
tremblingly asked for conditions of peace in accord- 
ance with their ancient honor. " I will reign at 
JSTovgorod as I do at Moscow," replied the imperious 
despot. "I must have domains on your territory. 
You must give up your Posadnick, and the bell which 
summons you to the national council." Yet this 
threat of enslavement was craftily coupled with a 
promise to respect their liberty. 

This declaration, the most terrible that free citi- 
zens could have heard, threw them into a state of 
violent agitation. Now in defiant fury they seized 
their arms, now in helpless despondency let them 
fall. For a whole month their crafty adversary per- 
mitted them to exhibit their rage, not caring to use 
the great army with which he had encircled the city 
when assured that the terror of his presence would 
soon bring him victory. 

They yielded : they could do nothing but yield. 
No blood was shed. Ivan had gained his end, and 
was not given to useless cruelty. Marfa and seven 
of the principal citizens were sent prisoners to Mos- 
cow and their property was confiscated. No others 
were molested. But on the 15th of January, 1478, 
the national assemblies ceased, and the citizens took 
the oath of subjection. The great republic, which 



72' HISTORICAL TALES. 

had existed from prehistoric times, was at an end, 
and despotism ruled supreme. 

On the 18th the boyars of Novgorod entered the 
service of Ivan, and the possessions of the clergy- 
were added to the domain of the prince, giving him 
as vassals three hundred thousand boyar-followers, 
on whom he depended to hold Novgorod in a state 
of submission. A great part of the territories be- 
longing to the city became the victor's prize, and it is 
said that, as a share of his spoil, he sent to Moscow 
three hundred cart-loads of gold, silver, and precious 
stones, besides vast quantities of furs, cloths, and 
other goods of value. 

Pskov, another of the Eussian repubhcs, had been 
already subdued. In 1479, Yiatka, a colony of Nov- 
gorod, was reduced to like slavery. The end had 
come. Eepublicanism in Russia was extinguished, 
and gradually the republican population was removed 
to the soil of Moscow and replaced by Muscovites, 
born to the yoke. 

The liberties of Novgorod were gone. It had 
been robbed of its wealth. Its commerce remained, 
which in time would have restored its prosperity. 
But this too Ivan destroyed, not intentionally, but 
effectually. A burst of despotic anger completed the 
work of ruin. The tyrant, having been insulted by 
a Hanseatic city, ordered all the merchants of the 
Hansa then in Novgorod to be put in chains and 
their property confiscated. As a result, that confi- 
dence under which alone commerce can flourish van- 
ished, the North sought new channels for its trade, 
and Novgorod the Great, once peopled by four hun- 



THE FALL OF NOVGOROD THE GREAT. 73 

dred thousand souls, declined until only an insignifi- 
cant borough marks the spot where once it stood. 

It is an interesting fact that this final blow to 
Eussian republicanism was dealt in 1492, the very 
year in which Columbus discovered a new world be- 
yond the seas, within which the greatest republic the 
world has ever known was destined to arise. 



IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 

In seeking examples of the excesses to which abso- 
lute power may lead, we usually name the wicked 
emperors of Eome, among whom Nero stands most 
notorious as a monster of cruelty. Modern history 
has but one Nero in its long lines of kings and em- 
perors, and him we find in Ivan lY. of Eussia, sur- 
named the Terrible. 

This cruel czar succeeded to the throne when but 
three years of age. In his early years he lived in a 
state of terror, being insulted and despised by the 
powerful nobles who controlled the power of the 
throne. At fourteen years of age his enemies were 
driven out and his kinsmen came into power. They, 
caring only for blood and plunder, prompted the boy 
to cruelty, teaching him to rob, to torture, to mas- 
sacre. They applauded him when he amused him- 
self by tormenting animals ; and when, riding furi- 
ously through the streets of Moscow, he dashed all 
before him to the ground and trampled women and 
children under his horses' feet, they praised him for 
spirit and energy. 

This was an education fitted to make a Nero. 
But, happily for Eussia, for thirteen years the tiger 
was chained. Ivan was seventeen years of age when 
a frightful conflagration which broke out in Moscow 
gave rise to a revolt against the Glinski, his wicked 
74 



IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 75 

kinsmen. They were torn to pieces by the furious 
multitude, while terror rent his youthful soul. Amid 
the horror of flames, cries of vengeance, and groans 
of the dying, a monk appeared before the trembling 
boy, and with menacing looks and upraised hand 
bade him shrink from the wrath of Heaven, which 
his cruelty had aroused. 

Certain appearances which appeared supernatural 
aided the eflfect of these words, the nature of Ivan 
seemed changed as by a miracle, dread of Heaven's 
vengeance controlled his nature, and he yielded him- 
self to the influence of the wise and good. Pious 
priests and prudent boyars became his advisers, Anas- 
tasia, his young and virtuous bride, gained an in- 
fluence over him, and Eussia enjoyed justice and 
felicity. 

During the succeeding thirteen years the country 
was ably and wisely governed, order was everywhere 
established, the army was strengthened, fortresses 
were built, enemies were defeated, the morals of the 
clergy were improved, a new code of laws was formed, 
arts were introduced from Europe, a printing-ofiice 
was opened, the city of Archangel was built, and the 
north of the empire was thrown open to commerce. 

All this was the work of Adashef, Ivan's wise 
prime minister, aided by the influence of the noble- 
hearted Anastasia. In 1560, at the end of this period 
of mild and able administration, a sudden change 
took place and the tiger was set free. Anastasia 
died. A disease seized Ivan which seemed to aff'ect 
his brain. The remainder of his life was marked by 
paroxysms of frightful barbarity. 



76 HISTORICAL TALES. 

A new terror seized him, that of a vast conspiracy 
of the nobles against his power, and for safety he 
retired to Alexandrovsky, a fortress in the midst of 
a gloomy forest. Here he assumed the monkish 
dress with three hundred of his minions, abandoning 
to the boyars the government of the empire, but 
keeping the military power in his own hands. 

On all sides Eussia now suffered from its enemies. 
Moscow, with several hundred thousand Muscovites, 
was burned by the Tartars in 1571. Disaster fol- 
lowed disaster, which Ivan was too cowardly and 
weak to avert. Trusting to incompetent generals 
abroad, he surrounded himself at home with a guard 
of six thousand chosen men, who were hired to play 
the part of spies and assassins. They carried as em- 
blems of office a dog's head and a broom, the first to 
indicate that they worried the enemies of the czar, 
the second that they swept them from the face of 
the earth. They were chosen from the lowest class 
of the people, and to them was given the property 
of their victims, that they might murder without 
mercy. 

The excesses of Ivan are almost too horrible to 
tell. He began by putting to death several great 
boyars of the family of Rurik, while their wives 
and children were driven naked into the forests, 
where they died under the scourge. Novgorod 
had been ruined by his grandfather. He marched 
against it, in a freak of madness, gathered a throng 
of the helpless people within a great enclosure, and 
butchered them with his own hand. When worn 
out with these labors of death, he turned on them 



IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 77 

his guard, his slaves, and his dogs, while for a month 
afterwards hundreds of them were flung daily into 
the waters of the river, through the broken ice. 
What little vitality Ivan III. had left in the repub- 
lican city was stamped out under the feet of this 
insensate brute. 

Tver and Pskov, two others of the free cities of 
the empire, suffered from his frightful presence. 
Then returning to Moscow, he filled the public 
square with red-hot brasiers, great brass caldrons, 
and eighty gibbets, and here five hundred of the 
leading nobles were slain by his orders, after being 
subjected to terrible tortures. 

Women were treated as barbarously as men. Ivan, 
with a cruelty never before matched, ordered many 
of them to be hanged at their own doors, and forced 
the husbands to go in and out under the swinging 
and festering corpses of those they had loved and 
cherished. In other cases husbands or children were 
fastened, dead, in their seats at table, and the family 
forced to sit at meals, for days, opposite these terri- 
fying objects. 

Seeking daily for new conceits of cruelty, he 
forced one lord to kill his father and another his 
brother, while it was his delight to let loose his dogs 
and bears upon the people in the public square, the 
animals being left to devour the mutilated bodies 
of those they killed. Eight hundred women were 
drowned in one frightful mass, and their relatives 
were forced under torture to point out where their 
wealth lay hidden. 

It is said that sixty thousand people were slain by 



78 HISTORICAL TALES. 

Ivan's orders in Novgorod alone ; how many per- 
ished in the whole realm history does not relate. 
His only warlike campaign was against the Livo- 
nians. These he failed to conquer, but held their 
resistance as a rebellion, and ordered his prisoners 
to be thrown into boiling caldrons, spitted on lances, 
or roasted at fires which he stirred up with his own 
hands. 

This monster of iniquity married in all seven 
wives. He sought for an eighth from the court of 
Queen Elizabeth of England, and the daughter of 
the Earl of Huntington was offered him as a victim, 
— a willing one, it seems, influenced by the glamour 
which power exerts over the mind ; but before the 
match was concluded the intended bride took fright, 
and begged to be spared the terrible honor of wed- 
ding the Eussian czar. 

Yet all the excesses of Ivan did not turn the 
people against him. He assumed the manner of one 
inspired, claiming divine powers, and all the injuries 
and degradation which he inflicted upon the people 
were accepted not only with resignation but with 
adoration. The Eussians of that age of ignorance 
seem to have looked upon God and the czar as one, 
and submitted to blows, wounds, and insults with 
a blind servility to which only abject superstition 
could have led. 

The end came at last, in a final freak of madness. 
An humble supplication, coming from the most faith- 
ful of his subjects, was made to him ; but in his dis- 
torted brain it indicated a new conspiracy of the 
boyars, of which his eldest and ablest son was to be 



IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 79 

the leader. In a transport of insane rage the fren- 
zied emperor raised his iron-bound staff and struck 
to the earth with a mortal blow this hope of his 
race. 

This was his last excess. Eegret for his hasty 
act, though not remorse for his murders, assailed 
him, and he soon after died, after twenty -six years 
of insane cruelties, ordering new executions almost 
with his latest breath. 



THE CONQUEST OF SIBERIA. 

In the year 1558 a family of wealthy merchants, 
Stroganof by name, began to barter with the Tartar 
tribes dwelling east of the Ural Mountains. Ivan 
lY. had granted to this family the desert districts 
of the Kama, with great privileges in trade, and 
the power to levy troops and build forts — at their 
own expense — as a security against the robbers 
who crossed the Urals to prey upon their settled 
neighbors to the west. In return the Stroganofs 
were privileged to follow their example in a more 
legal manner, by the brigandage of trade between 
civilization and barbarism. 

These robbers came from the region now known 
as Siberia, which extends to-day through thousands 
of miles of width, from the Urals to the Pacific. 
Before this time we know little about this great 
expanse of land. It seems to have been peopled 
by a succession of races, immigrants from the south, 
each new wave of people driving the older tribes 
deeper into the frozen regions of the north. Early 
in the Christian era there came hither a people des- 
titute of iron, but expert in the working of bronze, 
silver, and gold. They had wide regions of irrigated 
fields, and a higher civilization than that of those 
who in time took their place. 

People of Turkish origin succeeded these tribes 
80 



THE CONQUEST OF SIBERIA. 81 

about the eleventh century. They brought with 
them weapons of iron and made fine pottery. In 
the thirteenth century, when the great Mongol out- 
break took place under Genghis Khan, the Turkish 
kingdom in Siberia was destroyed and Tartars took 
their place. Civilization went decidedly down hill. 
Such was the state of affairs when Russia began to 
turn eyes of longing towards Siberia. 

The busy traders of Novgorod had made their 
way into Siberia as early as the eleventh century. 
But this republic fell, and the trade came to an end. 
In 1555, Khan Ediger, who had made himself a 
kingdom in Siberia, and whose people had crossed 
swords with the Russians beyond the Urals, sent en- 
voys to Moscow, who consented to pay to Russia a 
yearly tribute of a thousand sables, thus acknow- 
ledging Russian supremacy. 

This tribute showed that there were riches beyond 
the mountains. The Stroganofs made their way to 
the barrier of the hills, and it was not long before 
the trader was followed by the soldier. The invasion 
of Siberia was due to an event which for the time 
threatened the total overthrow of the Russian 
government. A Cossack brigand, Stepan Rozni by 
name, had long defied the forces of the czar, and 
gradually gained in strength until he had an army 
of three hundred thousand men under his command. 
If he had been a soldier of ability he might have 
made himself lord of the empire. Being a brigand 
in grain, he was soon overturned and his forces dis- 
persed. 

Among his followers was one Yermak, a chief of 
6 



82 HISTORICAL TALES. 

the Cossacks of the Don, whom the czar sentenced 
to death for his love of plunder, but afterwards 
pardoned. Yermak and his followers soon found 
the rule of Moscow too stringent for their ideas of 
personal liberty, and he led a Cossack band to the 
Stroganof settlements in Perm. 

Tradition tells us that the Stroganof of that date 
did not relish the presence of his unruly guests, 
with their free ideas of property rights, and sug- 
gested to Yermak that Siberia offered a promising 
field for a ready sword. He would supply him with 
food and arms if he saw fit to lead an expedition 
thither. 

The suggestion accorded well with Yermak's 
humor. He at once began to enlist volunteers for 
the enterprise, adding to his own Cossack band a 
reinforcement of Eussians and Tartars and of Ger- 
man and Polish prisoners of war, until he had six- 
teen hundred and thirty-six men under his command. 
With these he crossed the mountains in 1580, and 
terrified the natives to submission with his fire-arms, 
a form of weapon new to them. Making their way 
down the Tura and Taghil Elvers, the adventurers 
crossed the immense untrodden forests of Tobol, and 
Kutchum, the Tartar khan, was assailed in his capital 
town of Ister, near where Tobolsk now stands. 

Many battles with the Tartars were fought, Ister 
was taken, the khan fled to the steppes, and his 
cousin was made prisoner by the adventurers. Yer- 
mak now, having added by his valor a great domain 
to the Eussian empire, purchased the favor of Ivan 
lY. by the present of this new kingdom. He made 



THE CONQUEST OP SIBERIA. 83 

his way to the Irtish and Obi, opened trade with 
the rich khanate of Bokhara, south of the desert, 
and in various ways sought to consolidate the con- 
quest he had made. But misfortune came to the 
conqueror. One day, being surprised by the Tartars 
when unprepared, he leaped into the Irtish in full 
armor and tried to swim its rapid current. The 
armor he wore had been sent him by the czar, and 
had served him well in war. It proved too heavy 
for his powers of swimming, bore him beneath the 
hungry waters, and brought the career of the vic- 
torious brigand to an end. After his death his dis- 
mayed followers fled from Siberia, yielding it to 
Tartar hands again. 

Yermak — in his way a rival of Cortez and Pizarro 
— gained by his conquest the highest fame among 
the Eussian people. They exalted him to the level 
of a hero, and the church has raised him to the rank 
of a saint, at whose tomb miracles are performed. 
As regards the Eussian saints, it may here be re- 
marked that they have been constructed, as a rule, 
from very unsanctified timber, as may be seen from 
the examples we have heretofore given. JSTot only 
the people and the priests but the poets have paid 
their tribute to Yermak's fame, epic poems having 
been written about his exploits and his deeds made 
familiar in popular song. 

Though the Cossacks withdrew after Yermak's 
death, others soon succeeded them. The furs of Si- 
beria formed a rich prize whose allurement could not 
be ignored, and new bands of hunters and adven- 
turers poured into the country, sustained by regular 



84 HISTORICAL TALES. 

troops from Moscow. The advance was made through 
the northern districts to avoid the denser populations 
of the south. New detachments of troops were sent, 
who built forts and settled laborers around them, 
with the duty of supplying the garrisons with food, 
powder, and arms. By 1650 the Amur was reached 
and followed to the Pacific Ocean. 

It was a brief period in which to conquer a country 
of such vast extent. But no organized resistance 
was met, and the land lay almost at the mercy of 
the invaders. There was vigorous opposition by the 
tribes, but they were soon subdued. The only effec- 
tive resistance they met was that of the Chinese, who 
obliged the Cossacks to quit the Amur, which river 
they claimed. In 1855 the advance here began again, 
and the whole course of the river was occupied, with 
much territory to its south. Siberia, thus conquered 
by arms, is being made secure for Eussia by a trans- 
continental railroad and hosts of new settlers, and 
promises in the future to become a land of the great- 
est prosperity and wealth. 



THE MACBETH OF RUSSIA. 

On the 15th of May, 1591, five boys were playing 
in the court-yard of the Eussian palace at TJglitch. 
With them were the governess and nurse of the prin- 
cipal child — a boy ten years of age — and a servant- 
woman. The child had a knife in his hand, with 
which he was amusing himself by thrusting it into 
the ground or cutting a piece of wood. 

Unluckily, the attention of the women for a brief 
interval was drawn aside. When the nurse looked 
at her charge again, to her horror she found him 
writhing on the ground, bathed in blood which poured 
from a large wound in his throat. 

The shrieks of the nurse quickly drew others to 
the spot, and in a moment there was a terrible up- 
roar, for the dying boy was no less a person than 
Dmitri, son of Ivan the Terrible, brother of Feodor, 
the reigning czar, and heir to the crown of Eussia. 
The tocsin was sounded, and the populace thronged 
into the court-yard, thinking that the palace was on 
fire. On learning what had actually happened they 
burst into uncontrollable fury. The child had not 
killed himself, but had been murdered, they said, and 
a victim for their rage was sought. 

In a moment the governess was hurled bleeding 
and half alive to the ground, and one of her slaves, 
who came to her aid, was killed. The keeper of the 

85 



86 HISTORICAL TALES. 

palace was accused of the crime, and, though lie fled 
and barred himself within a house, the infuriated 
mob broke through the doors and killed him and his 
son. The body of the child was carried into a neigh- 
boring church, and here the son of the governess, 
against whom suspicion had been directed, was mur- 
dered before it under his mother's eyes. Fresh vic- 
tims to the wrath of the populace were sought, and 
the lives of the governess and some others were with 
difficulty saved. 

As for the child who had killed himself or had 
been killed, alarming stories had recently been set 
afloat. He was said to be the image of his terrible 
father, and to manifest an unnatural delight in blood 
and the sight of pain, his favorite amusement being 
to torture and kill animals. But it is doubtful if any 
of this was true, for there was then one in power who 
had a reason for arousing popular prejudice against 
the boy. 

That this may be better understood we must go 
back. Ivan had killed his ablest son, as told in a 
previous story, and Feodor, the present czar, was a 
feeble, timid, sickly incapable, who was a mere tool in 
the hands of his ambitious minister, Boris Godunof. 
Boris craved the throne. Between him and this lofty 
goal lay only the feeble Feodor and the child Dmitri, 
the sole direct survivors of the dynasty of Eurik. 
With their death without children that great line 
would be extinguished. 

The story of Boris reminds us in several particu- 
lars of that of the Scotch usurper Macbeth. His 
future career had been predicted, in the dead of 



THE MACBETH OF RUSSIA. 87 

night, by astrologers, who said, " You shall yet wear 
the crown." Then they became silent, as if seeing 
horrors which they dared not reveal. Boris insisted 
on knowing more, and was told that he should reign, 
but only for seven years. In joy he exclaimed, " No 
matter, though it be for only seven days, so that I 
reign !" 

This ambitious lord, who ruled already if he did 
not reign, had therefore a purpose in exciting preju- 
dice against and distrust of Dmitri, the only heir to 
the crown, and in taking steps for his removal. Feo- 
dor dead, the throne would fall like ripe fruit into his 
own hands. 

Yet, whether guilty of the murder or not, he took 
active steps to clear himself of the dark suspicion 
of guilt. An inquest was held, and the verdict ren- 
dered that the boy had killed himself by accident. 
At once the regent proceeded to punish those who 
had taken part in the outbreak at TJgHtch. The 
czaritza, mother of Dmitri, who had first incited the 
mob, was forced to take the veil. Her brothers, who 
had declared the act one of murder, were sent to re- 
mote prisons. Uglitch was treated with frightful 
severity. More than two hundred of its inhabitants 
were put to death. Others were maimed and thrown 
into dungeons. All the rest, except those who had 
fled, were exiled to Siberia, and with them was ban- 
ished the very church-bell which had called them 
out by its tocsin peal. A town of thirty thousand 
inhabitants was depopulated that, as people said, 
every evidence of the guilt of Boris Grodunof might 
be destroyed. 



88 HISTORICAL TALES. 

This dreadful violence did Boris more harm than 
good. Macbeth stabbed the sleeping grooms to hide 
his guilt. Boris destroyed a city. But he only 
caused the people to look on him as an assassin and 
to doubt the motives of even his noblest acts. 

A fierce fire broke out that left much of Moscow 
in ruin. Boris rebuilt whole streets and distributed 
money freely among the people. But even those 
who received this aid said that he had set fire to the 
city himself that he might win applause with his 
money. A Tartar army invaded the empire and ap- 
peared at the gates of Moscow. All were in terror 
but Boris, who hastily built redoubts, recruited sol- 
diers, and inspired all with his own courage. The 
Tartars were defeated, and hardly a third of them 
reached home again. Yet all the return the able 
regent received was the popular saying that he had 
called in the Tartars in order to make the people 
forget the death of Dmitri. 

A child was born to Feodor, — a girl. The enemies 
of the regent instantly declared that a boy had been 
born and that he had substituted for it a girl. It 
died in a few days, and then it was said that he 
had poisoned it. 

Yet Boris went on, disdaining his enemies, winning 
power as he went. He gained the favor of the 
clergy by giving Eussia a patriarch of its own. The 
nobles who opposed him were banished or crushed. 
He made the peasants slaves of the land, and thus 
won over the petty lords. Cities were built, for- 
tresses erected, the enemies of Eussia defeated ; Si- 
beria was brought under firm control, and the whole 



THE MACBETH OF RUSSIA. 89 

nation made to see that it had never been ruled by- 
abler hands. 

Boris in all this was strongly paving his way to 
the throne. In 1598 the weak Feodor died. He 
left no sons, and with him, its fifty-second sovereign, 
the dynasty of Eurik the Yarangian came to an 
end. It had existed for more than seven centuries. 
Branches of the house of Eurik remained, yet no 
member of it dared aspire to that throne which the 
tyrant Ivan had made odious. 

A new ruler had to be chosen by the voice of those 
in power, and Boris stood supreme among the aspi- 
rants. The chronicles tell us, with striking brevity, 
" The election begins ; the people look up to the 
nobles, the nobles to the grandees, the grandees to 
the patriarch; he speaks, he names Boris; and in- 
stantaneously, and as one man, all re-echo that for- 
midable name." 

And now Godunof played an amusing game. He 
held the reins of power so firmly that he could safely 
enact a transparent farce. He refused the sceptre. 
The grandees and the people begged him to accept 
it, and he took refuge from their solicitations in a 
monastery. This comedy, which even CsBsar had not 
long played, Boris kept up for over a month. Yet 
from his cell he moved Eussia at his will. 

In truth, the more he seemed to withdraw the 
more eager became all to make him accept. Priests, 
nobles, people, besieged him with their supplications. 
He refused, and again refused, and for six weeks 
kept all Eussia in suspense. Not until he saw be- 
fore him the highest grandees and clergy of the 



90 HISTORICAL TALES. 

realm on their knees, tears in their eyes, in their 
hands the relics of the saints and the image of the 
Eedeemer, did he yield what seemed a reluctant as- 
sent, and come forth from his cell to accept that 
throne which was the chief object of his desires. 

But Boris on the throne still resembled Macbeth. 
The memory of his crimes pursued him, and he 
sought to rule by fear instead of love. He endeav- 
ored, indeed, to win the people by shows and prodi- 
gality, but the powerful he ruled with a heavy hand, 
destroying all whom he had reason to fear, threat- 
ening the extinction of many great families by for- 
bidding their members to marry, seizing the wealth 
of those he had ruined. The family of the Eoma- 
nofs, allied to the line of Rurik, and soon to become 
pre-eminent in Russia, he pursued with rancor, its 
chief being obhged to turn monk to escape the axe. 
As monk he in time rose to the headship of the 
church. 

The peasantry, who had before possessed liberty 
of movement, were by him bound as serfs to the 
soil. Thousands of them fled, and an insupportable 
inquisition was established, as hateful to the land- 
owners as to the serfs. All this was made worse 
by famine and pestilence, which ravaged Russia for 
three years. And in the midst of this disaster the 
ghost of the slain Dmitri rose to plague his mur- 
derer. In other words, one who claimed to be the 
slain prince appeared, and avenged the murdered 
child, his story forming one of the most interesting 
tales in the history of Russia. It is this which we 
have now to tell. 



THE MACBETH OF RUSSIA. 91 

About midsummer of the year 1603 Adam Wisz- 
niowiecki, a Polish prince, angry at some act of 
negligence in a young man whom he had lately em- 
ployed, gave him a box on the ear and called him by 
an insulting name. 

" If you knew who I am, prince," said the indig- 
nant youth, "you would not strike me nor call me 
by such a name." 

" Knew who you are ! Why, who are you ?" 

" I am Dmitri, son of Ivan lY., and the rightful 
czar of Eussia." 

Surprised by this extraordinary statement, the 
prince questioned him, and was told a plausible 
story by the young man. He had escaped the mur- 
derer, he said, the boy who died being the son of a serf, 
who resembled and had been substituted for him by 
his physician Simon, who knew what Boris designed. 
The physician had fled with him from Uglitch and 
put him in the hands of a loyal gentleman, who for 
safety had consigned him to a monastery. 

The physician and gentleman were both dead, but 
the young man showed the prince a Eussian seal 
which bore Dmitri's arms and name, and a gold 
cross adorned with jewels of great value, given him, 
he said, by his princely godfather. He was about 
the age which Dmitri would have reached, and, as a 
Eussian servant who had seen the child said, had 
warts and other marks like those of the true Dmitri. 
He possessed also a persuasiveness of manner which 
soon won over the Polish prince. 

The pretender was accepted as an illustrious guest 
by Prince Wiszniowiecki, given clothes, horses, car- 



92 HISTORICAL TALES. 

riages, and suitable retinue, and presented to other 
Polish dignitaries. Dmitri, as he was thenceforth 
known, bore well the honors now showered upon 
him. He was at ease among the noblest ; gracious, 
affable, but always dignified; and all said that he 
had the deportment of a prince. 

He spoke Polish as well as Eussian, was thoroughly 
versed in Eussian history and genealogy, and was, 
moreover, an accomplished horseman, versed in field 
sports, and of striking vigor and agility, qualities 
highly esteemed by the Polish nobles. 

The story of this event quickly reached Eussia, 
and made its way with surprising rapidity through 
all the provinces. The czarevitch Dmitri had not 
been murdered, after all ! He was alive in Poland, 
and was about to call the usurper to a terrible reck- 
oning. The whole nation was astir with the story, 
and various accounts of his having been seen in 
Eussia and of having played a brave part in the 
military expeditions of the Cossacks were set afloat. 

Boris soon heard of this claimant of the throne. 
He also received the disturbing news that a monk 
was among the Cossacks of the Don urging them to 
take up arms for the czarevitch who would soon be 
among them. His first movement was the injudi- 
cious one of trying to bribe Wiszniowiecki to give 
up the impostor to him, — the result being to confirm 
the belief that he was in truth the prince he claimed 
to be. 

The events that followed are too numerous to be 
given in detail, and it must suffice here to say that 
on October 31, 1604, Dmitri entered Eussian terri- 



THE MACBETH OF RUSSIA. 93 

tory at the head of a small Polish army, of less than 
five thousand in all. This was a trifling force with 
which to invade an empire, but it grew rapidly as 
he advanced. Town after town submitted on his 
appearance, bringing to him, bound and gagged, the 
governors set over them by Boris. Dmitri at once 
set them free and treated them with politic hu- 
manity. 

The first town to offer resistance was J^ovgorod- 
Swerski, which Peter Basmanof, a general of Boris, 
had garrisoned with five hundred men. Basmanof 
was brave and obstinate, and for several weeks he 
held the force of Dmitri before this petty place, 
while Boris was making vigorous efforts to collect 
an army among his discontented people. On the 
last day of 1604 the two armies met, fifteen thou- 
sand against fifty thousand, and on a broad open 
plain that gave the weaker force no advantage of 
position. 

But Dmitri made up for weakness by soldierly 
spirit. At the head of some six hundred mail-clad 
Polish knights he vigorously charged the Russian 
right wing, hurled it back upon the centre, and soon 
had the whole army in disorder. The soldiers flung 
down their arms and fled, shouting, " The czarevitch ! 
the czarevitch!" 

Yet in less than a month this important victory 
was followed by a defeat. Dmitri had been weakened 
by his Poles being called home. Boris gathered new 
forces, and on January 20, 1605, the armies met again, 
now seventy thousand Muscovites against less than 
quarter their number. Yet victory would have come 



94 HISTORICAL TALES. 

to Dmitri again but for treachery in his army. He 
charged the enemy with the same fierceness as before, 
bore down all before him, routed the cavalry, tore a 
great gap in the line of the infantry, and would have 
swept the field had the main body of his army, con- 
sisting of eight thousand Zaporogues, come to his 
aid. 

At this vital moment this great body of cavalry, 
half the entire army, wheeled and quit the field, — 
bribed, it is said, by Boris. Such a defection, at such 
a moment, was fatal. The Eussians rallied ; the day 
was lost ; nothing but flight remained. Dmitri fled, 
hotly pursued, and his horse suffering from a wound. 
He was saved by his devoted Cossack infantry, four 
thousand in number, who stood to their guns and 
faced the whole Muscovite army. They were killed 
to a man, but Dmitri escaped, — favored, as we are 
told, by some of the opposing leaders, who did not 
want to make Boris too powerful. 

All was not lost while Dmitri remained at liberty. 
Lost armies could be restored. He took refuge in 
Putivle, one of the towns which had pronounced in 
his favor, and while his enemies, who proved half- 
hearted in the cause of Boris, wasted their time in 
besieging a small fortress, new adherents flocked 
to his banner. Boris was furious against his gen- 
erals, but his fury caused them to hate instead of to 
serve him. He tried to get rid of Dmitri by poison, 
but his agents were discovered and punished, and 
the attempt helped his rival more than a victory 
would have done. 

Dmitri wrote to Boris, declaring that Heaven had 



THE MACBETH OP RUSSIA. 95 

protected him against this base attempt, and ironi- 
cally promising to extend mercy towards him. " De- 
scend from the throne you have usurped, and seek 
in the solitude of the cloister to reconcile yourself 
with Heaven. In that case I will forget your crimes, 
and even assure you of my sovereign protection." 

All this was bitter to the Eussian Macbeth. The 
princely blood which he had shed to gain the throne 
seemed to redden the air about him. The ghost of 
his slain victim haunted him. His power, indeed, 
seemed as great as ever. He was an autocrat still, 
the master of a splendid court, the ruler over a vast 
empire. Yet he knew that they who came with 
reverence and adulation into his presence hated him 
in their hearts, and anguish must have smitten the 
usurper to the soul. 

His sudden death seemed to indicate this. On 
the 13th of April, 1605, after dining in state with 
some distinguished foreigners, illness suddenly seized 
him, blood burst from his mouth, nose, and ears, and 
within two hours he was dead. He had reigned six 
years, — nearly the full term predicted by the sooth- 
sayers. 

The story of Dmitri is a long one still, but must be 
dealt with here with the greatest brevity. Feodor, 
the son of Boris, was proclaimed czar by the boyars 
of the court. The oath of allegiance was taken by 
the whole city ; all seemed to favor him ; yet within 
six weeks this boyish czar was deposed and executed 
without a sword being drawn in his defence. 

Basmanof, the leading general of Boris, had turned 
to the cause of Dmitri, and the army seconded him. 



96 HISTORICAL TALES. 

The people of Moscow declared in favor of the pre- 
tender, there were a few executions and banish- 
ments, and on the 20th of June the new czar entered 
Moscow in great pomp, amid the acclamations of an 
immense multitude, who thronged the streets, the 
windows, and the house-tops; and the young man 
who, less than two years before, had had his ears 
boxed by a Polish prince, was now proclaimed empe- 
ror and autocrat of the mighty Eussian realm. 

It was a short reign to which the false Dmitri — 
for there seems to be no doubt of the death of the 
true Dmitri — had come. Within less than a year 
Moscow was in rebellion, he was slain, and the 
throne was vacant. And this result was largely due 
to his generous and kindly spirit, largely to his 
trusting nature and disregard of Eussian opinion. 

No man could have been more unlike the tyrant 
Ivan, his reputed father. Dmitri proved kind and 
generous to all, even bestowing honors upon members 
of the family of Godunof He remitted heavy taxes, 
punished unjust judges, paid the debts contracted by 
Ivan, passed laws in the interest of the serfs, and 
held himself ready to receive the petitions and re- 
dress the grievances of the humblest of his subjects. 
His knowledge of state affairs was remarkable for 
one of his age, and Eussia had never had an abler, 
nobler-minded, and more kindly-hearted czar. 

But Dmitri in discretion was still a boy, and made 
trouble where an older head would have mended it. 
He offended the boyars of his council by laughing at 
their ignorance. 

" Go and travel," he said ; " observe the ways of 



THE MACBETH OF RUSSIA. 97 

civilized nations, for you are no better than sav- 



The advice was good, but not wise. He offended 
the Eussian demand for decorum in a czar by riding 
through the streets on a furious stallion, like a Cos- 
sack of the Don. In religion he was lax, favoring 
secretly the Latin Church. He chose Poles instead 
of Eussians for his secretaries. And he excited 
general disgust by the announcement that he was 
about to marry a heretic woman, an unbaptized Pole ! 
The people were still more deeply incensed by the 
conduct of Marina, this foreign bride, both before 
and after the wedding, she giving continual offence 
by her insistence on Polish customs. 

While thus offending the prejudices and super- 
stitions of his people, Dmitri prepared for his down- 
fall by his trustfulness and clemency. He dismissed 
the spies with whom former czars had surrounded 
themselves, and laid himself freely open to treachery. 
The result of his acts and his openness was a con- 
spiracy, which was fortunately discovered. Shuiski, 
its leader, was condemned to be executed. Yet as 
he knelt with the axe lifted above him, he was re- 
spited and banished to Siberia; and on his way 
thither a courier overtook him, bearing a pardon for 
him and his banished brothers. His rank was re- 
stored, and he was again made a councillor of the 
empire. 

Clemency like this was praiseworthy, but it proved 
fatal. Like CsBsar before him, Dmitri was over-clem- 
ent and over-confident, and with the same result. 
Yet his answer to those who urged him to punish 

7 



98 HISTORICAL TALES. 

the conspirator was a noble one, and his trustfulness 
worth far more than a security due to cruelty and 
suspicion. 

"JS'o," he said, "I have sworn not to shed Chris- 
tian blood, and I will keep my oath. There are two 
ways of governing an empire, — tyranny and gener- 
osity. I choose the latter. I will not be a tyrant. I 
will not spare money ; I will scatter it on all hands." 

Only for the offence which he gave his people by 
disregarding their prejudices, Dmitri might have 
long and ably reigned. His confidence opened the 
way to a new conspiracy, of which Shuiski was again 
at the head. Eeports were spread through the city 
that Dmitri was a heretic and an impostor, and that 
he had formed a plot to massacre the Muscovites by 
the aid of the Poles whom he had introduced into 
the city. 

As a result of the insidious methods of the con- 
spirators, the whole city broke out in rebellion, and 
at daybreak on the 29th of May, 1606, a body of 
boyars gathered m the great square in full armor, 
and, followed by a multitude of townsmen, advanced 
on the Kremlin, whose gates were thrown open by 
traitors within. 

Dmitri, who had only fifty guards in the palace, 
was aroused by the din of bells and the uproar in 
the streets. An armed multitude filled the outer 
court, shouting, " Death to the impostor !" 

Soon conspirators appeared in the palace, where 
the czar, snatching a sword from one of the guards, 
and attended by Basmanof, attacked them, crying 
out, " I am not a Boris for you !" 



THE MACBETH OF RUSSIA. 99 

He killed several with his own hands, but Bas- 
manof was slain before him, and he and the guards 
were driven back from chamber to chamber, until 
the guards, finding that the czar had disappeared, 
laid down their arms. 

Dmitri, seeing that resistance was hopeless, had 
sought a distant room, and here, no one being in 
sight, had leaped from a window to the ground. 
But the height was thirty feet, his leg was broken 
by the fall, and he fainted with the pain. 

His last hope of life was gone. Some faithful sol- 
diers who found him sought to defend him against 
the mob who soon appeared, but their resistance 
was of no avail. Dmitri was seized, his royal gar- 
ments were torn off, and the caftan of a pastry-cook 
was placed upon him. Thus dressed, he was car- 
ried into a room of the palace for the mockery of a 
trial. 

" Bastard dog," cried one of the Russians, " tell 
us who you are and whence you came." 

" You all know I am your czar," replied Dmitri, 
bravely, " the legitimate son of Ivan Yassilievitch. 
If you desire my death, give me time at least to 
collect my senses." 

At this a Russian gentleman named Yalnief shouted 
out, — 

" What is the use of so much talk with the her- 
etic dog? This is the way I confess this Polish 
fifer." And he put an end to the agony of Dmitri 
by shooting him through the breast. 

In an instant the mob rushed on the lifeless body, 
slashing it with axes and swords. It was carried 



100 HISTORICAL TALES. 

out, placed on a table, and a set of bagpipes set on 
the breast with the pipe in the mouth. 

"You played on us long enough; now play for 
us," cried the ribald insulter. 

Others lashed the corpse with their whips, crying, 
" Look at the czar, the hero of the Germans." 

For three days Dmitri's body lay exposed to the 
view of the populace, but it was so hacked and man- 
gled that none could recognize in it the gallant young 
man who a few days before had worn the imperial 
robes and crown. 

On the third night a blue flame was seen playing 
over the table, and the guards, frightened by this 
natural result of putrefaction, hastened to bury the 
body outside the walls. But superstitious terrors 
followed the prodigy : it was whispered that Dmitri 
was a wizard who, by magic arts, had the power to 
come to life from the grave. To prevent this the 
body was dug up again and burned, and the ashes 
were collected, mixed with gunpowder, and rammed 
into a cannon, which was then dragged to the gate by 
which Dmitri had entered Moscow. Here the match 
was applied, and the ashes of the late czar were 
hurled down the road leading to Poland, whence he 
had come. 

Thus died a man who, impostor though he seems to 
have been, was perhaps the noblest and best of all 
the Eussian czars, while the story of his rise and 
fall forms the most dramatic tale in all the annals of 
the empire over which for x)ne short year he ruled. 



THE ERA OF THE IMPOSTORS, 

We have told how the ashes of Dmitri were loaded 
into a cannon and fired from the gate of Moscow. 
They fell like seeds of war on the soil of Eussia, and 
for years that unhappy land was torn by faction and 
harried by invasion. From those ashes new Dmitris 
seemed to spring, other impostors rose to claim the 
crown, and until all these shades were laid peace fled 
from the land. 

Yassili Shuiski, the leader in the insurrection 
against Dmitri, had himself proclaimed czar. He 
was destined to learn the truth of the saying, '' Un- 
easy lies the head that wears a crown." For hardly 
had the mob that murdered Dmitri dispersed before 
rumors arose that their victim was not dead. His 
body had been so mangled that none could recognize 
it, and the story was set afloat that it was one of his 
officers who had been killed, and that he had escaped. 
Four swift horses were missing from the stables of 
the palace, and these were at once connected with the 
assumed flight of the czar. Eumor was in the air, 
and even in Moscow doubts of Dmitri's death grew 
rife. 

Fuel soon fell on the flame. Three strangers in 
Eussian dress, but speaking the language of Poland, 
crossed the Oka Eiver, and gave the ferrj^man the 
high fee of six ducats, saying, " You have ferried the 

101 



102 HISTORICAL TALES. 

czar ; when he comes back to Moscow with a Polish 
army he will not forget your service." 

At a German inn, a little farther on, the same party 
used similar language. This story spread like wild- 
fire through Eussia, and deeply alarmed the new czar. 
To put it down he sought to play on the religious 
feelings of the Eussians, by making a saint of the 
original Dmitri. A body was produced, said to have 
been taken from the grave of the slain boy at Uglitch, 
but in a remarkable state of preservation, since it 
still displayed the fresh hue of life and held in its 
hand some strangely preserved nuts. Tales of mira- 
cles performed by the relics of the new saint were 
also spread, but with little avail, for the people were 
not very ready to believe the man who had stolen 
the throne. 

War broke out despite these manufactured mira- 
cles. Prince Shakhofskoi — the supposed leader of 
the party who had told the story at the Oka — was 
soon in the field with an army of Cossacks and peas- 
ants, and defeated the royal army. But the new 
Dmitri, in whose name he fought, did not appear. It 
seemed as if Shakhofskoi had not yet been able to 
find a suitable person to play the part. 

Eussia, however, was not long without a pre- 
tender. During Dmitri's reign a young man had 
appeared among the Cossacks of the Yolga, calling 
himself Peter Feodorovitcb, and claiming to be the 
son of the former czar Feodor. This man now re- 
appeared and presented himself to the rebel army as 
the representative of his uncle Dmitri. He was 
eagerly welcomed by Shakhofskoi, who badly needed 



THE ERA OF THE IMPOSTORS. 103 

some one whom he might offer to his men as a 
prince. 

And now we have to describe one of the strangest 
sieges in the annals of history. Shakhofskoi, finding 
himself threatened by a powerful army, took refuge 
in the fortified town of Toula. Here he was soon 
joined by Bolotnikof, a Polish general who had come 
to Eussia with a commission bearing the imperial 
seal of Dmitri. In this stronghold they were be- 
sieged by an army of one hundred thousand men, led 
by the czar himself 

Toula was strong. It was vigorously defended, the 
garrison fighting bravely for their lives. ]^o progress 
was made with the siege, and Shuiski grew discon- 
solate, for he knew that to fail now would be ruin. 

From this state of anxiety he was relieved by a 
remarkable proposal, that of an obscure individual 
who promised to drown all the people of Toula and 
deliver the town into his hands. This extraordi- 
nary offer, made by a monk named Kravkof, was at 
first received with incredulous laughter, and it was 
some time before the czar and his council could be 
brought to listen to the words of an idle braggart, 
as they deemed the stranger. In the end the czar 
asked him to explain his plan. 

It proved to be the following. Toula lay in a 
narrow valley, down whose centre flowed the little 
river Oupa, passing through the town. Kravkof 
suggested that they should dam this stream below 
the town. " Do as I say," he remarked, " and if the 
whole town is not under water in a few hours, I will 
answer for the failure with my head." 



104 HISTORICAL TALES. 

The project thus presented seemed feasible. Im- 
mediately all the millers in the army, men used to 
the kind of work required, were put under his orders, 
and the other soldiers were set to carrying sacks of 
earth to the place chosen for the dam. As this rose 
in height, the water backed up in the town. Soon 
many of the streets became canals, hundreds of 
houses, undermined by the water, were destroyed, 
and the promise of Kravkof seemed likely to be 
fulfilled. 

Yet the garrison, confined in what had become 
a walled-in lake, fought with desperate obstinacy. 
Water surrounded them, yet they waded to the 
walls and fought. Famine decimated them, yet they 
starved and fought. A terrible epidemic broke out 
in the water-soaked city, but the garrison fought 
on. Dreadful as were their surroundings, they held 
out with unflinching courage and intrepidity. 

The dam was the centre of the struggle. The 
besiegers sought to raise it still higher and deepen 
the water in the streets ; the besieged did their best 
to break it down and relieve the city. It had grown 
to a great height with such rapidity that the super- 
stitious people of Toula felt sure that magic had 
aided in its building and fancied that it might be 
destroyed by magic means. A monk declared that 
Shuiski had brought devils to his aid, but professed 
to be a proficient in the black art, and offered, for a 
hundred roubles, to fight the demons in their own 
element. 

Bolotnikof accepted his terms, and he stripped, 
plunged into the river, and disappeared. For a full 



THE ERA OF THE IMPOSTORS. 105 

hour nothing was seen of him, and every one gave 
him up for lost. But at the end of that time he 
rose to the surface of the water, his body covered 
with scratches. The story he had to tell was, to say 
the least, remarkable. 

" I have had a frightful conflict," he said, " with 
the twelve thousand devils Shuiski has at work upon 
his dam. I have settled six thousand of them, but 
the other six thousand are the worst of all, and will 
not give in." 

Thus against men and devils alike, against water, 
famine, and pestilence, fought the brave men of 
Toula, holding out with extraordinary courage. 
Letters came to them in Dmitri's name, promising 
help, but it never came. At length, after months 
of this brave defence had elapsed, Shakhofskoi pro- 
posed that they should capitulate. The Cossacks of 
the garrison, furious at the suggestion, seized and 
thrust him into a dungeon. Not until every scrap 
of food had been eaten, horses and dogs devoured, 
even leather gnawed as food, did Bolotnikof and 
Peter the pretender offer to yield, and then only on 
condition that the soldiers should receive honorable 
treatment. If not, they would die with arms in 
their hands, and devour one another as food, rather 
than surrender. As for themselves, they asked for 
no pledges of safety. 

Shuiski accepted the terms, and the gates were 
opened. Bolotnikof advanced boldly to the czar and 
offered himself as a victim, presenting his sword 
with the edge laid against his neck. 

" I have kept the oath I swore to him who, rightly 



106 HISTORICAL TALES. 

or wrongly, calls himself Dmitri," he said. "De- 
serted by him, I am in your power. Cut off my 
head if you will ; or, if you will spare my life, I will 
serve you as I have served him." 

This appeal was wasted on Shuiski. He forgot 
the clemency which the czar Dmitri had formerly 
shown to him, sent Bolotnikof to Kargopol, and soon 
after ordered him to be drowned. Peter the pre- 
tender was hanged on the spot. Shakhofskoi alone 
was spared. They found him in chains, which he 
said had been placed on him because he counselled 
the obstinate rebels to submit. Shuiski set him free, 
and the first use he made of his liberty was to kindle 
the rebellion again. 

Thus ended this remarkable siege, one in some re- 
spects without parallel in the history of war. What 
followed must be briefly told. Though the siege of 
Toula ended with the hanging of one pretender to 
the throne, another was already in the field. The 
new Dmitri, in whose name the war was waged, had 
made his appearance during the siege. Some of the 
officers of the first Dmitri pretended to recognize 
him, but in reality he was a coarse, vulgar, ignorant 
knave, who had badly learned his lesson, and lacked 
all the native princeliness of his predecessor. 

Yet he had soon a large array at his back, and 
with it, on April 24, 1608, he defeated the army of 
the czar with great slaughter. He might easily have 
taken Moscow, but instead of advancing on it he 
halted at the village of Tushino, twelve versts away, 
where he held his court for seventeen months. 

Meanwhile still another pretender appeared, who 



THE ERA OP THE IMPOSTORS. 107 

called himself Feodor, son of the czar Feodor. He 
presented himself to the Don Cossacks, who brought 
him in chains to Dmitri, by whom he was promptly 
put to death. Soon afterwards Marina, wife of the 
first Dmitri, who had been released, with her father, 
by Shuiski, was brought into the camp of the pre- 
tender. And here an interesting bit of comedy was 
played. Marina, rather than go back to meet ridi- 
cule in Poland, was ready to become the wife of 
this vulgar impostor, though she saw at once that 
he was not the man he claimed to be. 

She met him coldly at first, but at a second meet- 
ing she greeted him with a great show of tenderness 
before the whole army, being glad, it would appear, 
to regain her old position on any terms. The news 
that Marina had recognized the pretender brought 
over numbers to his side, and soon nearly all Eussia 
had declared for him, the only cities holding out 
being Moscow, Novgorod, and Smolensk. 

The false Dmitri had now reached the summit 
of his fortunes. A rapid decline followed. One of 
his generals, who laid siege to the monastery of the 
Trinity, near Moscow, was repulsed. His partisans 
were defeated in other quarters. Soon the whole 
aspect of the war changed. A new enemy to Rus- 
sia came into the field, Sigismund, King of Poland, 
who laid siege to the strong city of Smolensk, while 
the army of the czar, which marched to its relief, 
suffered an annihilating defeat. 

This result closed the reign of Shuiski. An insur- 
rection broke out in Moscow, he was forced to become 
a monk, and in the end was delivered to Sigismund 



108 HISTORICAL TALES. 

and died in prison. Thus was Dmitri avenged. The 
new condition of affairs proved as disastrous to the 
false Dmitri. His Poles deserted him, his power 
vanished, and he descended to the level of a mere 
Cossack robber. In December, 1610, murder ended 
his career. 

Smolensk fell after a siege of eighteen months, 
but at the last moment a powder magazine exploded 
and set fire to the city, and Sigismund became mas- 
ter only of a heap of ruins. The Poles in Moscow, 
attacked by the Eussians, took possession of the 
Kremhn, burned down most of the city, and massa- 
cred a hundred thousand of the people. Anarchy 
was rampant everywhere. New chiefs appeared in 
all quarters. Each town declared for itself. The 
Swedes took possession of Novgorod. A third Dmitri 
appeared, and dwelt in state for a while, but was 
soon taken and hanged. The whole great empire 
was in a state of frightful confusion, and seemed as 
if it was about to fall to pieces. 

From this fate it was saved by one of the common 
people, a butcher of ISTijni Novgorod, Kozma Minin 
by name. Brave, honest, patriotic, and sensible, 
this man aroused his fellow-citizens, who took up 
arms for the deliverance of their country. Other 
towns followed this example, an army was raised 
with Prince Pojarski at its head, and Miniia, the 
patriotic butcher, seconded him in an administrative 
capacity, being hailed by the people as "the elect 
of the whole Eussian empire." 

Driving the Poles before him, Pojarski entered 
Moscow, and in October, 1612, became master of 



THE ERA OF THE IMPOSTORS. 109 

the Kremlin. The impostors all disappeared; Ma- 
rina and her three-year-old son Ivan were captured, 
the child to be hanged and she to end her eventful 
life in prison ; anarchy vanished, and peace returned 
to the realm. 

The end came in 1613, when a national council 
was convened to choose a new czar. Pojarski refused 
the crown, and Michael Eomanof, a boy of sixteen, 
scion of one of the noblest families of Eussia, and 
allied to the Euriks by the female line, was elected 
iczar. His descendants still hold the throne. 



THE BOOKS OF ANCESTRY. 

The noble families of Eussia, for the most part 
descendants of the Scandinavian adventurers who 
had come in with Eurik, were as proud in their way 
as the descendants of the vikings who came to Eng- 
land under William of Normandy. Their books of 
pedigree were kept with the most scrupulous care, 
and in these were set down not only the genealogies 
of the famihes, but every office that had been held 
by any ancestor, at court, in the army, or in the ad- 
ministration. 

With this there is no special fault to be found. It 
is as well, doubtless, to keep the pedigrees of men 
as it is to keep those of horses and dogs ; though the 
animals, being ignorant of their records, are less 
likely to make them a matter of pride and presump- 
tion. In Eussia the fact that certain men knew the 
names and standing of their ancestors led to the 
most absurd consequences. The books of ancestry 
were constantly appealed to for the support of fool- 
ish pretensions, and the nobles of Eussia strutted 
like so many peacocks in their insensate pride of 
family. 

In no other country has the question of precedence 

been carried to such ridiculous lengths as it was 

in Eussia in the days of the early Eomanofs. If a 

nobleman were appointed to a post at court or a 

110 



THE BOOKS OF ANCESTRY. Ill 

position in the army, lie at once examined the books 
of ancestry to learn if the officials under whom he 
would serve had fewer ancestors on record than he. 
If such proved to be the case the office was refused, 
or accepted under protest, the government being, 
metaphorically, forced to fall on its knees to the 
haughtiness of its offended lordling. 

The folly of the nobles went even farther than 
this. The height of their genealogy counted for as 
much as its length. They would refuse to accept 
positions under persons whose ancestors were shown 
by the books to have been subordinate to theirs in 
the same positions. If it appeared that the John 
of five centuries before had been under the Peter of 
that period, the modern Peter was too proud to ac- 
cept a similar position under the modern John. And 
so it went, until court life became a constant scene 
of bickering and discontent, and of murmurs at the 
most trifling slights and neglects. In short, it be- 
came necessary that an office of genealogy should be 
established at court, in which exact copies of the 
family trees and service registers of the noble fam- 
ilies were kept, and the officers here employed found 
enough to keep them busy in settling the endless 
disputes of their lordly clients. 

In the reign of Theodore, the third czar of the 
Eomanof dynasty, this ridiculous sentiment reached 
its climax, and it became almost impossible to ap- 
point a wise man to office over a fool, if the fool's 
ancestors had happened to hold the same office over 
those of the man of wisdom. The fancy seemed to 
be held that folly and wisdom are handed down from 



112 HISTORICAL TALES. 

father to son, a conceit which is often the very re- 
verse of the truth. 

Theodore was a feeble youth, who reigned little 
more than five years, yet in that time he managed 
to bury this folly out of sight. Annoyed by the 
constant bickerings of courtiers and officials, he con- 
sulted with his able minister. Prince Yassili G-alitzin, 
and hit on a means of ridding himself of the diffi- 
culty. 

Proclamation was made that all the noble families 
of the kingdom should deliver their service rolls into 
court by a fixed date, that they might be cleared 
of certain errors which had unavoidably crept into 
them. The order was obeyed, and a multitude of 
these precious documents were brought into the 
palace halls of the czar. The heads of the noble 
families and the higher clergy were now sent for, 
composing a proud assembly, before whom the patri- 
arch, who had received his instructions, made an 
eloquent address. He ended by speaking of the 
claims to precedence in the following words : 

" They are a bitter source of every kind of evil ; 
they render abortive the most useful enterprises, in 
like manner as the tares stifle the good grain ; they 
have introduced, even into the hearts of families, dis- 
sension, confusion, and hatred. But the pontiff com- 
prehends the grand design of his czar; God alone 
could have inspired it !" 

Though utterly ignorant of what that design 
was, the grandees felt compelled to express a warm 
approval of these words. At this Theodore, who 
pretended to be enraptured by their unanimous ap- 



THE BOOKS OF ANCESTRY. 113 

plause, suddenly rose, and, simulating a burst of 
patriotic enthusiasm, proclaimed the abolition of all 
their hereditary claims. 

" That the very recollection of them may be for- 
ever extinguished," he exclaimed, " let all the papers 
relative to these titles be instantly consumed." 

The fire was already prepared, and by his orders 
the precious papers were hurled into the flames be- 
fore the anguished eyes of the nobles, who did not 
dare in that despotic court to express their true feel- 
ings, and strove to hide their dismay under hollow 
acclamations of assent. 

As what they deemed their most valuable pos- 
sessions were thus converted to ashes before their 
eyes, the patriarch again rose, and declared an 
anathema against any one who should dare to op- 
pose this order of the czar. An " Amen" that was 
like a groan came from the lips of the horrified 
nobles, and precedence went up in flames. 

The czar had no thought of effacing the noble 
families. New books were prepared, in which their 
ancestry was described. But the absurd claims which 
had caused such discord were forever abolished, and 
court life thereafter proved smoother and easier in 
consequence of the iconoclastic act of the czar Theo- 
dore. 



BOYHOOD OF PETER THE 
GREAT. 

Peter the Great, grandson of the first emperor 
of the Eomanof line, was a man of such extraor- 
dinary power of body and mind, such a remarkable 
combination of common sense, mental activity, ad- 
vanced ideas, and determination to lift Eussia to a 
high place among the nations, with cruelty, gross- 
ness, and infirmities of vice and passion, that his 
reign of forty-three years fills as large a place in 
Russian history as do the annals of all the preceding 
centuries, and the progress of Russia during this 
short period was greater than in any other epoch of 
three or four times its length. 

The character of the man showed in the boy, and 
while a mere child he began those steps of progress 
which were continued throughout his life. He had 
two brothers, both older than he, and sons of a dif- 
ferent mother, so that the throne seemed far from 
his grasp. But Theodore, the oldest of the three, 
died after a brief reign, leaving no heirs to the 
throne. Ivan, the second son, was an imbecile, 
nearly blind, and subject to epileptic fits. The 
clergy and grandees, in consequence, looked upon 
Peter as the most promising successor to the throne. 
But he was still only a child, not yet ten years of age. 

The czar Alexis had left also several daughters ; 
114 



BOYHOOD OF PETER THE GREAT. 115 

but in those days the fate of princesses of the blood 
was a harsh one. They were not permitted to marry, 
and were consigned to convents, where they knew 
nothing of what was passing in the busy world 
without. One of the daughters, Sophia by name, 
had escaped from this fate. At her earnest request 
she was taken from the convent and permitted to 
nurse her sickly brother Theodore. 

She was a woman of high intelligence, bold and 
ambitious by nature, and during her residence in 
court learned much of the politics of the empire 
and took some part in its government. After the 
death of Theodore she contrived to have herself 
named regent for her two brothers, Ivan being 
plainly unfit to rule, and Peter too young. 

There are many stories told about her, of which 
probably the half are not true. It is said that she 
kept her young brother at a distance from Moscow, 
where she surrounded him with ministers of evil, 
whose business it was to encourage him in riot and 
dissipation, to the end that he might become a moral 
monster, odious and insupportable to the nation at 
large. Such a course had been pursued with Ivan 
the Terrible, and to it was largely due his incredible 
iniquity. 

If Sophia had really any such purpose in view, 
she was pla3'ing with edge-tools. She quite mistook 
the character of her young brother, and forgot that 
the same rule may work differently in different 
cases. The steps taken to make the boy base, if 
really so intended, aided to make him great. His 
morals were corrupted, his health was impaired, and 



116 HISTORICAL TALES. 

his heart hardened by the excesses of his youth, but 
his removal from the palace atmosphere of flattery 
and effeminacy tended to make him self-reliant, 
while his free life in the country and the activity 
which it encouraged helped to develop the native 
energy of his character. 

It is probable that Sophia had no such intention 
to corrupt the nature of the child, for she showed 
no ill will against him. It was apparently to his 
mother, rather than to his sister, that his residence 
in the country was due, and he was obliged to go 
frequently to Moscow, to take part in ceremonial 
affairs, while his name was used in all public docu- 
ments, many of which he was required to sign. 

From early life the boy had shown himself active, 
intelligent, quick to learn, and full of curiosity. He 
was particularly interested in military affairs, and 
playing at soldiers was one of the leading diver- 
sions of his youth. Only a day or two after a great 
riot in Moscow, in which numbers of nobles were 
slaughtered, and in which the child had looked un- 
moved into the savage faces of the rioters, he sent 
to the arsenal for drums, banners, and arms. Uni- 
forms and wooden cannon were supplied him, and on 
his eleventh birthday — in 1683 — he was allowed to 
have some real guns, with which he fired salutes. 

From his country home at Preobrajensk messen- 
gers came almost daily to Moscow for powder, lead, 
and shot ; small brass and iron cannon were supplied 
the boy, and drummer-boys, selected from the dif- 
ferent regiments, were sent to him. Thus he was 
allowed to play at soldier to his heart's content. 



BOYHOOD OF PETER THE GREAT. 117 

A company was formed from the younger domes- 
tics of the place, fifty in number, the officers being 
sons of the boyars or lords. But these were required 
by the alert boy to pass through all the grades of 
the service, which he also did himself, serving suc- 
cessively as private, sergeant, lieutenant, and captain, 
and finally as colonel of the regiment which grew 
from this youthful company. Peter called his com- 
pany "the guards," but it was known in Moscow as 
the "pleasure company," or "troops for sport." In 
time, however, it grew into the Preobrajensky Guards, 
a celebrated regiment which is still kept up as the 
first regiment of the Russian Imperial Guard, and of 
which the emperor is always the colonel. Another 
company, formed on the same plan in an adjoining 
village, became the Semenofsky Regiment. From 
these rudiments grew the present Russian army. 

These mihtary exercises soon ceased to be child's 
play to the active lad. He gave himself no rest from 
his prescribed duties, stood his watch in turn, shared 
in the labors of the camp, slept in the tents of his 
comrades, and partook of their fare. He used to 
lead his company on long marches, during which the 
strictest discipline was maintained, and the camps at 
night were guarded as in an enemy's country. 

On reaching his thirteenth year the boy took fur- 
ther steps in his military education, building a small 
fortress, whose remains are still preserved. This 
was constructed with great care, and took nearly 
a year to build. At the suggestion of a German 
officer it was named Pressburg, the name being 
given with much ceremony, Peter leading from Mos- 



118 HISTORICAL TALES. 

COW a procession of most of the court officials and 
nobles to take part in the performance. 

These military sports were not enough for the 
active mind of the boy, who kept himself busy at a 
dozen labors. He used to hammer and forge in the 
blacksmith's shop, became an expert with the lathe, 
and learned the art of printing and binding books. 
He built himself a wheelbarrow^ and other articles 
which he needed, and at a later date it was said that 
he " knew excellently well fourteen trades." 

When in Moscow, Peter spent much of his time in 
the foreign quarter, joining his associates there in the 
beer, wine, and tobacco of which they were specially 
fond, and questioning them about a thousand sub- 
jects unknown to the Eussians, thus acquiring a 
wide knowledge of men and affairs. He troubled 
himself little about rank or position, making a com- 
panion of any one, high or low, from whom anything 
could be learned, while any mechanical curiosity 
particularly attracted him. 

A sextant and astrolabe were brought him from 
France, of whose use no one could inform him, though 
he asked all whom he met. At length a Dutch mer- 
chant, Franz Timmermann by name, was brought 
him, who measured with the instrument the distance 
to a neighboring house. 

Peter was delighted, and eagerly asked to be 
taught how to use the instrument himself. 

" It is not so easy," replied Timmermann ; " you 
must first learn arithmetic and geometry." 

Here was a new incentive. The boy at once set 
to work, spending all his leisure time, day and night, 



BOYHOOD OF PETER THE GREAT. 119 

over these studies, to which he afterwards added 
geography and fortification. It was in this desultory 
way that his education was gained, no regular course 
of training being prescribed, and his strong self-will 
breaking through all family discipline. 

We may end here what we have to say about the 
boy's military activity. His army gradually grew 
until it numbered five thousand men, mainly foreign- 
ers, who were commanded by General Gordon, a 
Scotch oflScer. Lefort, a Swiss, who had become one 
of Peter's favorite companions, now undertook to 
raise an army of twelve thousand men. He suc- 
ceeded in this, and unexpectedly found himself made 
general of this force. 

It is, however, of the boy's activity in naval af- 
fairs that we must now speak. Timmermann had 
become one of his constant companions, and was 
always teaching him something new. One day in 
1688, when Peter was sixteen years old, he was 
wandering about one of the country estates of the 
throne, near the village of Ismailovo. An old build- 
ing in the flax-yard attracted his attention, and he 
asked one of the servants what it was. 

"It is a storehouse," the man said, "in which was 
put all the rubbish that was left after the death of 
JSTikita Eomanof, who used to live here." 

Peter at once, curious to see this " rubbish," had 
the doors opened, went in, and looked about. In one 
corner, bottom upward, lay a boat, very different in 
build from the flat-bottomed, square-sterned boats 
which were in use on the Eussian rivers. 

"What is that?" he asked. 



120 HISTORICAL TALES. 

" It is an English boat," said Timmermann. 

*' But what is it good for ? Is it better than our 
boats?" demanded Peter. 

" Yes. If you had sails for it, you would find that 
it would not only go with the wind, but against the 
wind." 

" Against the wind ! Is that possible ? How can 
it be possible ?" 

With his usual impatience, the boy wanted to try 
it at once. But the boat proved to be too rotten for 
use. It would need to be repaired and tarred, and 
a mast and sails would have to be made. 

Where could these be had ? Who could make them ? 
Timmermann was able to tell him. Some thirty years 
before, a number of Dutch ship-carpenters had been 
brought from Holland and had built some vessels 
on the Yolga Eiver for the czar Alexis. These had 
been burned by a brigand, and Brandt, the builder, 
had returned to Moscow, where he still worked as a 
joiner. In those days it was easier to get into Eussia 
than to get out again, foreigners who entered the 
land being held there as virtual prisoners. Even 
General Gordon tried in vain to get back to his 
native land. 

Old Brandt was found, looked over tbe boat, put 
it in order, and launched it on a neighboring stream. 
To Peter's surprise and delight, he saw the boat 
moving under sail up and down the river, turning to 
right and left in obedience to the helm. Greatly 
excited, he called on Brandt to stop, jumped in, and, 
under the old man's directions, began to manage the 
boat himself. 



BOYHOOD OF PETER THE GREAT. 121 

But the river was too narrow and the water too 
shallow for easy sailing, and the energetic boy had 
the boat dragged overland to a large pond, where it 
went better, but still not to his satisfaction. Where 
was a better body of water? He was told that 
there was a large lake about fifty miles away, but 
that it would be easier to build a new boat than to 
drag the English boat that distance. 

"Can you do that ?" asked the eager boy. 

" Yes, sire," said Brandt, " but I will need many 
things." 

"Oh, that does not matter at all," said Peter. 
" We can have anything." 

No time was lost. Brandt, with one of his old 
comrades and Timmermann, went to work at once 
in the woods bordering the lake, Peter working 
with them when he could get away from Moscow, 
where he was frequently needed. It took time. 
Timber had to be prepared, a hut built to live in, 
and a dock to launch the boats, which were built on 
a larger scale than the small English craft. Thus it 
was not until the following spring that the new boats 
were ready to launch. 

Peter meanwhile had been married. But the 
charms of his wife could not keep him from his be- 
loved boats. Back he went, aided in completing and 
launching the new craft, and took such delight in 
sailing them about the lake that he could hardly be 
induced to return to Moscow for important duties. 

In this humble way began the Russian navy, which 
had grown to large proportions before Peter died. 
The little English boat, which some think was one 



122 HISTORICAL TALES. 

sent by Queen Elizabeth to Ivan the Terrible, has 
ever since Peter's time been known as the " Grand- 
sire of the Eussian navy." It is kept with the 
greatest care in a small brick building within the 
fortress at St. Petersburg, and was one of the prin- 
cipal objects of interest in the great parade in that 
city in 1870 on the two hundredth anniversary of 
Peter's birth. 

It will suffice to say, in conclusion, that shortly 
after these events Peter became the reigning czar, 
and turned from sport to earnest. Sophia had en- 
joyed so long the pleasure of ruling that her am- 
bition grew with its exercise, and she sought to re- 
tain her position as long as possible. It is even said 
that she laid a plot to assassinate Peter, so that only 
the feeble Ivan should be left. The boy, told that 
assassins were seeking him, fled for his life. His 
fright seems to have been groundless, but it made 
him an undying enemy of his sister. The affair 
ended in the bulk of the nobility and soldiery turn- 
ing to his side and in Sophia being obliged to leave 
the throne for a convent, where she spent the re- 
mainder of her life in the misery of strict seclusion. 



CARPENTER PETER OF 
ZAANDAM, 

On the banks of the river Zaan, about five miles 
from Amsterdam, lies the picturesque little town of 
Zaandam, with its cottages of blue, green, and pink, 
half hidden among the trees, while a multitude of 
windmills surround the town like so many monu- 
ments to thrift and enterprise. Here, two centuries 
ago, ship-building was conducted on a great scale, 
the timber being sawed by windmill power, while 
the workmen were so numerous that a vessel was 
often on the sea in five weeks after the keel had 
been laid. 

To this place, in August, 1697, came a workman of 
foreign birth, who found humble quarters in a small 
frame hut and entered himself as a ship-carpenter 
at the wharf of Lynst Eogge. There was nothing 
specially noticeable about the stranger, who wore a 
workman's dress and a tarpaulin hat. But with him 
were some comrades dressed in the strange garb of 
Eussia, who attracted the attention of the people. 

As for the new workman, he did not long escape 
curious looks. The rumor had got about that no less 
a personage than the Czar of Eussia was in the town, 
and it began to be suspected that this unobtrusive 
stranger might be the man, so that it was not long 
before inquisitive eyes began to follow him wherever 

123 



124 HISTORICAL TALES. 

he went. The rumor soon brought large crowds 
from Amsterdam, whose presence made the streets 
of the small Dutch town anything but comfortable. 

It was well known that Peter I., Czar of Eussia, 
was travelling through the nations of the West. A 
large embassy, composed of several hundred people, 
some of them the highest officials of the court, had 
left the Muscovite kingdom, and visited the several 
courts and large cities on their route, being every- 
where received with the greatest distinction. But 
the czar did not appear openly among them. He was 
there in disguise, but had given strict orders that his 
presence should not be revealed. He hated crowds, 
hated adulation, and wished only to be let alone to 
see and learn all he could. So while the ambassadors 
were receiving the highest honors of kingdoms and 
courts and bowing and parading to their hearts' con- 
tent, the czar kept himself in the background as an 
amused spectator, thought by most observers to be 
one of the servants of the gorgeous train. 

And thus he reached Zaandam, which he had been 
told was the best place to learn how ships were built. 
Here he saw fishing in the river one of his old 
acquaintances of the foreign quarter of Moscow, a 
smith named Gerrit Kist. Calling him from his rod, 
and binding him to secrecy, he told him why he had 
come to Holland, and insisted on taking up quarters 
in his house. This house, a small frame hut, is now 
preserved as a sacred object, enclosed within a brick 
building, and has long been a place of pilgrimage 
even for royal travellers. Emperors and kings have 
bent their lofty heads to enter its low door. 



CARPENTER PETER OF ZAANDAM. 125 

Yet Peter lived in Zaandam only a week, and 
during that week did little work at ship-building, 
spending much of his time in rowing about among 
the shipping, and visiting most of the factories and 
mills, at one of which he made a sheet of paper with 
his own royal hands. 

One day the disguised emperor met with an adven- 
ture. He had bought a hatful of plums, and was 
eating them in the most plebeian fashion as he walked 
along the street, when he met a crowd of boys. He 
shared his fruit with some of these, but those to 
whom he refused to give plums began to follow him 
with boyish reviling, and when he laughed at them 
they took to pelting him with mud and stones. Here 
was a situation for an emperor away from home. The 
Czar of all the Eussias had to take to his heels and 
run for refuge to the Three Swans Inn, where he 
sent for the burgomaster of the town, told who he 
was, and demanded aid and relief. At least we may 
suppose so, for an edict was soon issued threatening 
punishment to all who should insult " distinguished 
persons who wished to remain unknown." 

The end of Peter's stay soon came. A man in 
Zaandam had received a letter from his son in Moscow, 
saying that the czar was with the great Eussian 
embassy, and describing him so closely that he could 
no longer remain unknown. This letter was seen by 
Pomp, the barber of Zaandam, and when Peter came 
into his place with his Eussian comrades he at once 
knew him from the description and spread the news. 

From that time the czar had no rest. Wherever 
he went he was followed by crowds of curious people. 



126 HISTORICAL TALES. 

They grew so annoying that at length he leaped in 
anger from his boat and gave one of the most forward 
of his persecutors a sharp cuff on the cheek. 

"Bravo, Marsje !" cried the crowd in delight; 
"you are made a knight." 

The czar rushed angrily to an inn, where he shut 
himself up out of sight. The next day a large ship 
was to be moved across the dike by means of cap- 
stans and rollers, a difficult operation, in which Peter 
took deep interest. A place was reserved for him 
to see it, but the crowd became so great as to drive 
back the guards, break down the railings, and half 
fill the reserved space. Peter, seeing this, refused 
to leave his house. The burgomaster and other high 
officials begged him to come, but the most he could 
be got to do was to thrust his head out of the door 
and observe the situation. 

" Te veel volks, te veel volks'' (" too many people"), 
he bluntly cried, and refused to budge. 

The next day was Sunday, and all Amsterdam 
seemed to have come to Zaandam to see its distin- 
guished guest. He escaped them by fleeing to Am- 
sterdam. Getting to a yacht he had bought, and to 
which he had fitted a bowsprit with his own hands, 
he put to sea, giving no heed to warnings of danger 
from the furious wind that was blowing. Three 
hours after he reached Amsterdam, where his ambas- 
sadors then were, and where they were to have a 
formal reception the next day. 

Receptions were well enough for ambassadors, but 
they were idle flummery to the czar, who had come 
to see, not to be seen, and who did his best to keep 



CARPENTER PETER OF ZAANDAM. 127 

out of sight. He visited the fine town hall, inspected 
the docks, saw a comedy and a ballet, consented to 
sit through a great dinner, witnessed a splendid dis- 
play of fireworks, and, most interesting to him of all, 
was entertained with a great naval sham fight, which 
lasted a whole day. 

Zaandam has the credit of having been the scene 
of Peter the Great's labor as a shipwright, but it 
was really at Amsterdam that his life as a work- 
man was passed. At his request he was given the 
privilege of working at the docks of the East India 
Company, a house being assigned him within the 
enclosure where he could dwell undisturbed, free 
from the curiosity of crowds. As a mark of respect 
it was determined to begin the construction of a 
new frigate, one hundred feet long, so that the dis- 
tinguished workman might see the whole process of 
the building of a ship. With his usual impetuosity 
Peter wished to begin work immediately, and could 
hardly be induced to wait for the fireworks to burn 
themselves out. Then he set out for Zaandam on his 
yacht to fetch his tools, and the next day, August 30, 
presented himself as a workman at the East India 
Company's wharf. 

For more than four months, with occasional breaks, 
Peter worked diligently as a ship-carpenter, ten 
of his Eussian companions — probably much against 
their will — working at the wharf with him. He was 
known simply as Baas Peter (Carpenter Peter), and, 
while sitting on a log at rest, with his hatchet be- 
tween his knees, was willing to talk with any one 
who addressed him by this name, but had no answer 



128 HISTORICAL TALES. 

for those who called him Sire or Your Majesty. 
Others of the Russians were put to work elsewhere, 
to study the construction of masts, blocks, sails, etc., 
some of them were entered as sailors before the 
mast, and Prince Alexander of Imeritia went to the 
Hague to study artillery. None of them was al- 
lowed " to take his ease at his inn." 

Peter insisted on being treated as a common work- 
man, and would not permit any difference to be 
made between him and his fellow-laborers. He also 
demanded the usual wages for his work. On one 
occasion, when the Earl of Portland and another 
nobleman came to the yard to have a sight of him, 
the overseer, to indicate him, called out, " Carpenter 
Peter of Zaandam, why don't you help your com- 
rades?" Without a word, Peter put his shoulders 
under a log which several men were carrying, and 
helped to lift it to its place. 

His evenings were spent in studying the theory 
of ship-building, and his spare hours were fully oc- 
cupied in observation. He visited everything worth 
seeing, factories, museums, cabinets of coins, theatres, 
hospitals, etc., constantly making shrewd remarks 
and inquiries, and soon becoming known from his 
quick questions, " What is that for ? How does that 
work? That will I see." 

He went to Zaandam to see the Greenland whal- 
ing fleet, visited the celebrated botanical garden 
with the great Boerhaave, studied the miscroscope at 
Delft under Leuwenhoek, became intimate with the 
military engineer Coehorn, talked with Schynvoet of 
architecture, and learned to etch from Schonebeck. 



CARPENTER PETER OF ZAANDAM. 129 

An impression of a plate made by him, of Christianity 
victorious over Islam, is still extant. 

He made himself familiar with Dutch home life, 
mingled with the merchants engaged in the Eussian 
trade, went to the Botermarkt every market-day, 
and took lessons from a travelling dentist, experi- 
menting on his own servants and suite, probably 
not mach to their enjoyment. He mended his own 
clothes, learned enough of cobbling to make himself 
a pair of slippers, and, in short, was insatiable in his 
search for information of every available kind. 

His work on the frigate whose keel he had helped 
to lay was continued until it was launched. It was 
well built, and for many years proved a good and 
useful ship, braving the perils of the seas in the East 
India trade. But with all this the imperial carpen- 
ter was not satisfied. The Dutch methods did not 
please him. The ship-masters seemed to work with- 
out rules other than the " rule of thumb," having no 
theory of ship-building from which the best propor- 
tions of a vessel could be deduced. 

Learning that things were ordered differently in 
English ship-yards, that there work was done by 
rule and precept, Peter sent an order to the Russian 
docks not to allow the Dutch shipwrights to work 
as they pleased, but to put them under Danish or 
English overseers. For himself, he resolved to go 
to England and follow up his studies there. King 
William had sent him a warm invitation and pre- 
sented him a splendid yacht, light, beautifully pro- 
portioned, and armed with twenty brass cannon. 
Delighted with the present, he sailed in it to Eng- 



130 HISTORICAL TALES. 

land, escorted by an English fleet, and in London 
found an abiding-place in a house which a few years 
before had been the refuge of William Penn when 
charged with treason. Here he slept in a small 
room with four or five companions, and when the 
King of England came to visit him, received his 
fellow-monarch in his shirt-sleeves. The air of the 
room was so bad that, though the weather was very 
cold, William insisted on a window being raised. 

In England the czar, though managing to see 
much outside the ship-yards, worked steadily at Dept- 
ford for several months, leaving only when he had 
gained all the special knowledge which he could ob- 
tain. His admiration for the English ship-builders 
was high, he afterwards saying that but for his jour- 
ney to England he would have always remained a 
bungler. While here he engaged many men to take 
service in Eussia, shipwrights, engineers, and others ; 
he also engaged numerous officers for his navy from 
Holland, several French surgeons, and various per- 
sons of other nationality, the whole numbering from 
six to eight hundred skilled artisans and professional 
experts. To raise money for their advance payment 
he sold the monopoly of the Eussian tobacco trade 
for twenty thousand pounds. Sixty years before, his 
grandfather Michael had forbidden the use of tobacco 
in Eussia under pain of death, and the prejudice 
against it was still strong. But in spite of this the 
use of tobacco was rapidly spreading, and Peter thus 
threw down the bars. 

Great numbers of anecdotes are afloat about 
Peter's doings in Holland and England, — many of 



CARPENTER PETER OF ZAANDAM. 131 

them, doubtless, invented. The sight of a great 
monarch going about in workman's clothes and 
laboring like a common ship-carpenter was apt to 
aid the imagination of story-tellers and give rise 
to numerous tales with little fact to sustain them. 

In May, 1698, Peter left England and proceeded 
to Amsterdam, where his embassy had remained, 
often in great distress about him, for the winter was 
cold and stormy and at one time no news was re- 
ceived from him for a month. From Amsterdam he 
made his way to Yienna, whence he proposed to go 
to Yenice and Eome, but was prevented by dis- 
turbing news from Moscow, which turned his steps 
homeward. Here he was to show a new phase of 
his varied character, as will be seen in the following 
tale. 



THE FALL OF THE STRELITZ, 

History presents us with four instances of an im- 
perial soldiery who took the power into their own 
hands and for a time ruled as the tyrants of a 
nation. These were the Pretorian Guards of Eome, 
the Mamelukes of Egypt, the Janissaries of Turkey, 
and the Strelitz of Eussia. Of these, the Pretorian 
Guards remained pre-eminent, and made emperors 
at their will. The other three came to a terrible end. 
History elsewhere records the tragic fate of the 
Mamelukes and the Janissaries : we are here con- 
cerned only with that of the Strelitz corps of Eussia. 

The Strelitz were the first regular military force 
of Eussia, a permanent militia of fusileers, formed 
during the early reign of Ivan the Terrible, and 
themselves in time becoming a terror to the nation. 
The first serious outbreak of this dangerous civic 
guard was on the nomination of Peter I. to the 
throne of the czar. They did not dream then of the 
terrible revenge which this despised boy would take 
upon them. 

Two days after the funeral of the czar Theodore 
the insurrection began, the Strehtz marching in an 
armed body to the Kremlin, where they accused 
nine of their colonels of defrauding them of their 
pay. The frightened ministers hastened to dismiss 
these officers, but this did not satisfy the savage 
132 



THE FALL OF THE STRELITZ. 133 

soldiery, who insisted on their being delivered into 
their hands. This done, the unfortunate officers 
were sentenced to be scourged, some of theni by 
that fearful Eussian whip called the knout. 

Their success in this outbreak led the Strelitz to 
greater outrages. The tiger in their savage natures 
was let loose, and only blood could appease its rage. 
Marching to the Kremlin, they declared that the 
late czar had been poisoned by his doctor, and de- 
manded the death of all those in the plot. Breaking 
into the palace, they seized two of the suspected 
princes and flung them from the windows, to be re- 
ceived upon the pikes of the soldiers in the street 
below. The next victim was one of the JSTarishkins, 
the uncles of Peter the Great. He was massacred 
in the same brutal manner and his bleeding body 
dragged through the streets. Three of the pro- 
scribed nobles had fled for sanctuary to a church, 
but were torn from the altar, stripped of their cloth- 
ing, and cut to pieces with knives. 

The next victim was a friend and favorite of the 
Strelitz, who was killed under the belief that he was 
one of the E'arishkins. Discovering their error, the 
assassins carried the mangled body of the young 
nobleman to the house of his father for interment. 
The old man, timid by nature, did not dare to com- 
plain of the savage act, and even rewarded them for 
bringing him the body of his son. For this weak- 
ness he was bitterly reproached by his wife and 
daughters and the weeping wife of the victim. 

" What could I do ?" pleaded the helpless father ; 
" let us wait for an opportunity to be revenged." 



134 HISTORICAL TALES. 

A revengeful servant overheard these words and 
repeated them to the soldiers. In a sudden fury 
the savages returned, dragged the old man from the 
room by the hair of his head, and cut his throat at 
his own door. 

Meanwhile some of the Strelitz, seeking the Dutch 
physician Yongad, who had attended the dying czar 
and was accu8ed of poisoning him, met his son 
and asked where his father was. " I do not know," 
replied the trembling youth. His ignorance was In- 
stantly punished with death. 

In a few minutes a German physician fell in their 
way. " You are a doctor," they cried. " If you 
have not poisoned our master Theodore, you have 
poisoned others. You deserve death." And in a 
moment the unlucky doctor fell a victim to their 
blind rage. 

The Dutch physician was at length discovered and 
dragged to the palace. Here the princesses begged 
hard for his life, declaring that he was a skilful 
doctor and a good man and had worked hard to 
save their brother's life. They answered that he 
deserved to die as a sorcerer as well as a physician, 
for they had found the skeleton of a toad and the 
skin of a snake in his cabinet. 

The next victim demanded was Ivan Narishkin, 
who they were sure was somewhere concealed in the 
palace. Not finding him, they threatened to burn 
down the building unless he were delivered into 
their hands. At this terrifying threat the young 
man was taken from his place of concealment and 
brought to them by the patriarch, who held in his 



THE PALL OP THE STRELITZ. 135 

hands an image of the Yirgin Mary which was said 
to have performed miracles. The princesses sur- 
rounded the victim, and, kneeling to the soldiers, 
prayed with tears for his Hfe. 

All their supplications and the demands of the 
venerable patriarch were without eifect on the sav- 
age soldiery, who dragged their captives to the 
bottom of the stairway, went through the forms of 
a mock trial, and condemned them to the torture. 
They were sentenced to be cut to pieces, a form of 
punishment to which parricides are condemned in 
China and Tartary. This tragedy went on until all 
the proscribed on whom they could lay their hands 
had perished and Sophia felt secure in her power. 

In the end, Ivan and Peter were declared joint 
sovereigns (1682), and their sister Sophia was made 
regent. The acts of the Strelitz were approved and 
they rewarded, the estates of their victims were con- 
fiscated in their favor, and a monument was erected 
on which the names of the victims were inscribed 
as traitors to their country. 

The Strelitz had learned their power, and took 
frequent occasion to exercise it. Twice again they 
broke out in revolt during the regency of Sophia. 
After the accession of Peter their hostility continued. 
He had sent them to fight on the frontiers. He had 
supplanted them with regiments drilled in the Eu- 
ropean manner. He had organized a corps of twelve 
thousand foreigners and heretics. He had ordered 
the construction of a fleet of a hundred vessels, which 
would add to the weight of taxes and bring more 
foreigners into the country. And he proposed to 



136 HISTORICAL TALES. 

leave Russia, to journey in the lands of the heretics, 
and to bring back to their sacred land the customs 
of profane Europe. 

All this was too much for the leaders of the Stre- 
litz, who represented old Russia, as Peter represented 
new. They resolved to sacrifice the czar to their 
rage. Tradition tells the following story, which, 
though probably not true, is at least interesting. 
Two leaders of the Strelitz laid a plot to start a fire 
at night, feeling sure that Peter, with his usual ac- 
tivity, would hasten to the scene. In the confusion 
attending the fire they meant to murder him, and 
then to massacre all the foreigners whom he had 
introduced into Moscow. 

The time fixed for the consummation of this plot 
was at hand. A banquet was held, at which the 
principal conspirators assembled, and where they 
sought in deep potations the courage necessary for 
their murderous work. Unfortunately for them, 
liquor does not act on all alike. While usually 
giving boldness, it sometimes produces timidity. 
Two of the villains lost their courage through their 
potations, left the room on some pretext, promising 
to return in time, and hastened to the czar with the 
story of the plot. 

Peter knew not the meaning of the words timidity 
and procrastination. His plans were instantly laid. 
The time fixed for the conflagration was midnight. 
He gave orders that the hall in which the conspira- 
tors were assembled should be surrounded exactly 
at eleven. Soon after, thinking that the hour had 
come, he sought the place alone and boldly entered 



THE FALL OF THE STRELITZ. 137 

the room, fully expecting to find the conspirators in 
the hands of his guards. 

To his consternation, not a guard was present, and 
he found himself alone and unarmed in the midst of 
a furious band who were just swearing to compass 
his destruction. 

The situation was a critical one. The conspira- 
tors, dismayed at this unlooked-for visit, rose in con- 
fusion. Peter was furious at his guards for having 
exposed him to this peril, but instantly perceived, 
that there was only one course for him to pursue. 
He advanced among the throng of traitors with a 
countenance that showed no trace of his emotions, 
and pleasantly remarked, — 

" I saw the light in your house while passing, and, 
thinking that you must be having a gay time to- 
gether, I have come in to share your pleasure and 
drain a cup with you." 

Then, seating himself at the table, he filled a cup 
and drank to his would-be assassins, who, on their 
feet about him, could not avoid responding to the 
toast and drinking his health. 

But this state of affairs did not long continue. 
The courage of the conspirators returned, and they 
began to exchange looks and signs. The opportunity 
had fallen into their hands ; now was the time to avail 
themselves of it. One of them leaned over to Su- 
kanim, one of their leaders, and said, in a low tone, — 

" Brother, it is time." 

" Not yet," said Sukanim, hesitating at the critical 
moment. 

At that instant Peter heard the footsteps of his 



138 HISTORICAL TALES. 

guards outside, and, starting to his feet, knocked the 
leader of the assassins down by a violent blow in his 
face, exclaiming, — 

" If it is not yet time for you, scoundrel, it is for 
me." 

At the same moment the guards entered the room, 
and the conspirators, panic-stricken by the sight, 
fell on their knees and begged for pardon. 

" Chain them !" said the czar, in a terrible voice. 

Turning then to the commander of the guards, he 
struck him and accused him of having disobeyed 
orders. But the officer proving to him that the 
hour fixed had just arrived, the czar, in sudden re- 
morse at his haste, clasped him in his arms, kissed 
him on the forehead, proclaimed his fidelity, and 
gave the traitors into his charge. 

And now Peter showed the savage which lay within 
him under the thin veneer of civilization. The con- 
spirators were put to death with the cruellest of tor- 
tures, and, to complete the act of barbarity, their 
heads were exposed on the summit of a column with 
their limbs arranged around them as ornaments. 

Satisfied that this fearful example would keep 
Eussia tranquil during his absence, Peter set out on 
his journey, visiting most of the countries of West- 
ern Europe. He had reached Yienna, and was on 
the point of setting out for Yen ice, when word was 
brought him from Eussia that the Strelitz had broken 
out in open insurrection and were marching from 
their posts on the frontier upon Moscow. 

The czar at once left Yienna and journeyed with 
all possible speed to Eussia, reaching Moscow in Sep- 



THE FALL OF THE STRELITZ. 139 

tember, 1698. His appearance took all by surprise, 
for none knew that he had yet left Austria. 

He came too late to suppress the insurrection. 
That had been already done by General Grordon, who, 
marching in all haste, had met the rebels about thirty 
miles from Moscow^ and called on them to surrender. 
As they refused and attacked the troops, he opened 
on them with cannon, put them to flight, and of the 
survivors took captive about two thousand. These 
were decimated on the spot, and the remainder im- 
prisoned. 

This was punishment enough for a soldier, but not 
enough for an autocrat, whose mind was haunted by 
dark suspicions, and who looked upon the outbreak 
as a plot to dethrone him and to call his sister Sophia 
to the throne. In his treatment of the prisoners the 
spirit of the monster Ivan IV. seems to have entered 
into his soul, and the cruelty shown, while common 
enough in old-time Eussia, is revolting to the modern 
mind. 

The trial was dragged out through six weeks, with 
daily torture of some of the accused, under the eyes 
of the czar himself, who sought to force from them 
a confession that Sophia had been concerned in the 
outbreak. The wives of the prisoners, all the women 
servants of the princesses, even poor beggars who 
lived on their charity, were examined under torture. 
The princesses themselves, Peter's sisters, were ques- 
tioned by the czar, though he did not go so far as to 
torture them. Yet with all this nothing was dis- 
covered. There was not a word to connect Sophia 
with the revolt. 



140 HISTORICAL TALES. 

The trial over, the executions began. Of the 
prisoners, some were hanged, some beheaded, others 
broken on the wheel. It is said that those beheaded 
were made to kneel in rows of fifty before trunks of 
trees laid on the ground, and that Peter compelled 
his courtiers and nobles to act as executioners, 
Mentchikof specially distinguishing himself in this 
work of slaughter. It is even asserted that the czar 
wielded the axe himself, though of this there is some 
doubt. The opinion grew among the people that 
neither Peter nor Prince Eamodanofsky, his cruel 
viceroy, could sleep until they had tasted blood, and 
a letter from the prince contains the following lurid 
sentence: ^' I am always washing myself in hloodr 

The headless bodies of the dead were left where 
they had fallen. The long Eussian winter was just 
beginning, and for five months they laj^ unburied, 
a frightful spectacle for the eyes of the citizens of 
Moscow. 

Of those hanged, nearly two hundred were left 
depending from a large square gallows in front of 
the cell of Sophia at the convent in which she was 
confined, and with a horrible refinement of cruelty 
three of these bodies were so placed as to hang all 
winter under her very window, one of them holding 
in his hand a folded paper to represent a petition 
for her aid. 

The six regiments of Strelitz still on the frontier 
showed signs of a similar outbreak, but the news of 
the executions taught them that it was safest to keep 
quiet. But many of them were brought in chains 
to Moscow and punished for their intentions. Yari- 



THE FALL OF THE STRELITZ. 141 

0U8 stories are told of Peter's cruelty in connection 
with these executions. One is that he beheaded 
eighty with his own hand, Plestchef, one of his 
boyars, holding them by the hair. Another story, 
told by M. Printz, the Prussian ambassador, says 
that at an entertainment given him by the czar, 
Peter, when drunk, had twenty rebels brought in 
from the prisons, whom he beheaded in quick suc- 
cession, drinking a bumper after each blow, the 
whole concluding within the hour. He even asked 
the ambassador to try his skill in the same way. It 
may be said here, however, that these stories rest 
upon very poor evidence, and that anecdote-makers 
have painted Peter in blacker colors than he de- 
serves. 

In the end the corps of the Strelitz was abolished, 
their houses and lands in Moscow were taken from 
the survivors, and all were exiled into the country, 
where they became simple villagers. 



THE CRUSADE AGAINST BEARDS 
AND CLOAKS. 

The return of Peter the Great from his European 
journey was marked by other events than his cruel 
revenge upon the rebellious Strelitz. That had af- 
fected only a few thousand people ; the reforms he 
sought to introduce affected the nation at large. The 
Eussians were then more Oriental than European in 
style, wearing the long caftan or robe of Persia and 
Turkey, which descended to their heels, while their 
beards were like those of the patriarchs, the man 
deeming himself most in honor who had the longest 
and fullest crop of hair upon his face. 

To Peter, fresh from the West, and strongly imbued 
with European views, all this was ridiculous, if not 
abominable. He determined to reform it all, and at 
once set to work in his impetuous way, which could 
not brook a day's delay, to deprive the Eussians of 
their beards and the tails of their coats. He had 
scarcely arrived before the boyars and leading citi- 
zens of Moscow, who flocked to congratulate him 
on his return, were taken aback by the edict that 
whiskers were condemned, and that the razor must 
be set at work without delay upon their honorable 
chins. 

This edict was like a thunder-clap from a clear sky. 
The Eussians admired and revered their beards. 
142 




PETER THE GREAT. 



THE CRUSADE AGAINST BEARDS AND CLOAKS. 143 

They were time-honored and sacred in their eyes. 
To lose them was like losing their family trees and 
patents of nobility. But Peter was without rever- 
ence for the past, and his word was law. He had 
ordered a mowing and reaping of hair, and the har- 
vest must be made, or worse might come. General 
Shein, commander-in-chief of the army, was the first 
to yield to the imperative edict and submit his vener- 
able beard to the indignity of the razor's edge. The 
old age seemed past and the new age come when 
Shein walked shamefacedly into court with a clean 
chin. 

The example thus set was quickly followed. Beards 
were tabooed within the precincts of the court. All 
shared the same fate, none being left to laugh at 
the rest. The patriarch, it is true, was exempted, 
through awe for his high office in the Church, while 
reverence for advanced years reprieved Prince Tcher- 
kasy, and Tikhon Streshnef was excused out of honor 
for his services as guardian of the czaritza. Every 
one else within the court had to submit to the razor's 
fatal edge or feel the czar's more fatal displeasure, 
and beards fell like " autumnal leaves that strow the 
brooks in Vallombrosa." 

An observer speaks as follows concerning a feast 
given by General Shein : " A crowd of boyars, scribes, 
and military officers almost incredible was assembled 
there, and among them were several common sailors, 
with whom the czar repeatedly mixed, divided apples, 
and even honored one of them by calling him his 
brother. A salvo of twenty-five guns marked each 
toast. Nor could the irksome offices of the barber 



144 HISTORICAL TALES. 

check the festivities of the day, though it was well 
known he was enacting the part of jester by appoint- 
ment at the czar's court. It was of evil omen to 
make show of reluctance as the razor approached 
the chin, and hesitation was to be forthwith punished 
with a box on the ears. In this way, between mirth 
and the wine-cup, many were admonished by this 
insane ridicule to abandon the olden guise." 

For Peter to shave was easy, as he had little beard 
and a very thin moustache. But by the old-fashioned 
Eussian of his day the beard was cherished as the 
Turk now cherishes his hirsute symbol of dignity or 
the Chinaman his long-drawn-out queue. Shortly 
after Peter came to the throne the patriarch Adrian 
had delivered himself in words of thunder against 
all who were so unholy and heretical as to cut or 
shave their beards, a God-given ornament, which had 
been worn by prophets and apostles and by Christ 
himself. Only heretics, apostates, idol-worshippers, 
and image-breakers among monarchs had forced 
their subjects to shave, he declared, while all the great 
and good emperors had indicated their piety in the 
length of their beards. 

To Peter, on the contrary, the beard was the symbol 
of barbarity. He was not content to say that his 
subjects might shave, he decreed that they must 
shave. It began half in jest, it was continued in 
solid earnest. He could not well execute the non- 
shavers, or cut off the heads of those who declined 
to cut off their beards, but he could fine them, and he 
did. The order was sent forth that all Eussians, with 
the exception of the clergy, should shave. Those 



THE CRUSADE AGAINST BEARDS AND CLOAKS. 145 

who preferred to keep their beards could do so by 
paying a yearly tax into the public treasury. This 
was fixed at a kopeck (one penny) for peasants, but 
for the higher classes varied from thirty to a hundred 
rubles (from sixty dollars to two hundred dollars). 
The merchants, being at once the richest and most 
conservative class, paid the highest tax. Every one 
who paid the tax was given a bronze token, which 
had to be worn about the neck and renewed every 
year. 

The czar would allow no one to be about him who 
did not shave, and many submitted through " terror 
of having their beards (in a merry humor) pulled 
out by the roots, or taken so rough off that some 
of the skin went with them." Many of those who 
shaved continued to do reverence to their beards by 
carrying them within their bosoms as sacred objects, 
to be buried in their graves, in order that a just ac- 
count might be rendered to St. Nicholas when they 
should come to the next world. 

The ukase against the beard was soon followed by 
one against the caftan, or long cloak, the old Eussian 
dress. The czar and the leading officers of his em- 
bassy set the example of wearing the German dress, 
and he cut off, with his own hands, the long sleeves 
of some of his officers. " Those things are in your 
way," he would say. "You are safe nowhere with 
them. At one moment you upset a glass, then you 
forgetfully dip them in the sauce. Get gaiters made 
of them." 

On January 14, 1700, a decree was issued com- 
manding all courtiers and of&cials throughout the 

10 



146 HISTORICAL TALES. 

empire to wear the foreign dress. This decree had 
to be frequently repeated, and models of the clothing 
exposed. It is said that patterns of the garments 
and copies of the decrees were hung up together at 
the gates of the towns, while all who disobeyed the 
order were compelled to pay a fine. Those who 
yielded were obliged " to kneel down at the gates of 
the city and have their coats cut oif just even with 
the ground," the part that lay on the ground as they 
kneeled being condemned to suffer by the shears. 
" Being done with a good humor, it occasioned mirth 
among the people, and soon broke the custom of 
their wearing long coats, especially in places near 
Moscow and those towns wherever the czar came." 

This demand did not apply to the peasantry, 
and was therefore more easily executed. Even the 
women were required to change their Eussian robes 
for foreign fashions. Peter's sisters set the example, 
which was quickly followed, the women showing 
themselves much less conservative than the men in 
the adoption of new styles of dress. 

The reform did not end here. Decrees were issued 
against the high Eussian boots, against the use of 
the Eussian saddle, and even against the long Eus- 
sian knife. Peter seemed to be infected with a pas- 
sion for reform, and almost everything Eussian was 
ordered to give way before the influx of Western 
modes. Western ideas did not come with them. 
To change the dress does not change the thoughts, 
and it does not civilize a man to shave his chin. 
Though outwardly conforming to the advanced fash- 
ions of the West, inwardly the Eussians continued 



THE CRUSADE AGAINST BEARDS AND CLOAKS. 147 

to conform to the unprogressive conceptions of the 
East. 

It may be said that these changes did not come 
to stay. They were too revolutionary to take deep 
root. There is no disputing the fact that a coat 
down to the heels is more comfortable in a cold cli- 
mate than one ending at the knees, and is likely to 
be worn in preference. Students in Eussia to-day 
wear the red shirt, the loose trousers tucked into 
the high boots, and the sleeveless caftan of the 
peasant, to show that they are Slavs in feeling, 
while the old Eussian costume is the regulation 
court dress for ladies on occasions of state. 

We cannot here name the host of other reforms 
which Peter introduced. The army was dressed and 
organized in the fashion of the West. A navy was 
rapidly built, and before many years Eussia was 
winning victories at sea. Peter had not worked at 
Amsterdam and Deptford in vain. The money of 
the country was reorganized, and new coins were 
issued. The year, which had always begun in Eussia 
on September 1, was now ordered to begin on Jan- 
uary 1, the first new year on the new system, 
January 1, 1700, being introduced with impressive 
ceremonies. Up to this time the Eussians had 
counted their year from the supposed date of cre- 
ation. They were now ordered to date their chro- 
nology from the birth of Christ, the first year of the 
new era being dated 1700 instead of 7208. Un- 
luckily, the Gregorian calendar was not at the same 
time introduced, and Eussia still clings to the old 
style, so that each date in that country is twelve 



148 HISTORICAL TALES. 

days behind the same date in the rest of the Christian 
world. 

Another reform of an important character was 
introduced. Peter had observed the system of local 
self-government in other countries, and resolved to 
have something like it in his realm. In Little Eussia 
the people already had the right of electing their 
local officials. A similar system was extended to 
the whole empire, the merchants in the towns being 
permitted to choose good and honest men, who 
formed a council which had general charge of mu- 
nicipal affairs. Where bribery and corruption were 
discovered among these officials the knout and exile 
were applied as inducements to honesty in office. 
Even death was threatened; yet bribery went on. 
Honesty in office cannot be made to order, even by a 
czar. 



MAZEPPA, THE COSSACK CHIEF. 

Among the romantic characters of history none 
have attained higher celebrity than the hero of our 
present tale, whose remarkable adventure, often told 
in story, has been made immortal in Lord Byron's 
famous poem of " Mazeppa." Those who wish to 
read it in all its dramatic intensity must apply to the 
poem. Here it can only be given in plain prose. 

Mazeppa was a scion of a poor but noble Polish 
family, and became, while quite young, a page at the 
court of John Casimir, King of Poland. There he re- 
mained until he reached manhood, when he returned 
to the vicinity of his birth. And now occurred the 
striking event on which the fame of our hero rests. 
The court-reared young man is said to have engaged 
in an intrigue with a Polish lady of high rank, or at 
least was suspected by her jealous husband of having 
injured him in his honor. 

Bent upon a revenge suitable to the barbarous 
ideas of that age, the furious nobleman had the 
young man seized, cruelly scourged, and in the end 
stripped naked and firmly bound upon the back of 
an untamed horse of the steppes. The wild animal, 
terrified by the strange burden upon its back, was 
then set free on the borders of its native wilds of 
the Ukraine, and, uncontrolled by bit or rein, gal- 
loped madly for miles upon miles through forest and 

149 



150 HISTORICAL TALES, 

over plain, until, exhausted by the violence of its 
flight, it halted in its wild career. For a dramatic 
rendering of this frightful ride our readers must be 
referred to Byron's glowing verse. 

The savage Polish lord had not dreamed that his 
victim would escape alive, but fortune favored the 
poor youth. He was found, still fettered to the ani- 
mal's, back, insensible and half dead, by some Cos- 
sack peasants, who rescued him from his fearful situ- 
ation, took him to their hut, and eventually restored 
him to animation. 

Mazeppa was well educated and fully versed in 
the art of war of that day. He made his home with 
his new friends, to whom his courage, agility, and 
sagacity proved such warm recommendations that 
he soon became highly popular among the Cossack 
clans. He was appointed secretary and adjutant to 
Samilovitch, the hetman or chief of the Cossacks, 
and on the disgrace and exile of this chief in 1687 
Mazeppa succeeded him as leader of the tribe. He 
distinguished himself particularly in the war waged 
by the army of the Princess Sophia against the 
Turks and Tartars of the Crimea, in which Mazeppa 
led his Cossack followers with the greatest courage 
and skill. 

On the return of the army to Moscow, Prince Galit- 
zin, its leader, brought into the capital a strong force 
of Cossacks, with Mazeppa at their head. It was the 
first time the Cossacks had been allowed to enter Mos- 
cow, and their presence gave great offence. It was 
supposed to be a part of the plot of Sophia to dethrone 
her young brother and seize the throne for herself. 



MAZEPPA, THE COSSACK CHIEF. 151 

It was known that they would execute to the full 
any orders given them by their chief; but their mo- 
tions were so restricted by the indignant people that 
the ambitious woman, if she entertained such a 
design, found herself unable to employ them in it. 

The daring hetman of the Cossacks became after- 
wards a cherished friend of Peter the Great, who 
conferred on him the title of prince, and severely 
punished those who accused him of conspiring with 
the enemies of Eussia. Having the fullest confidence 
in his good faith, Peter banished or executed his foes 
as liars and traitors. Yet they seem to have been 
the true men and Mazeppa the traitor, for at length, 
when sixty-four years of age, he threw off allegiance 
to Eussia and became an ally of the Swedish enemies 
of the realm. 

The fiery and ungovernable temper of Peter is 
said to have been the cause of this. The story goes 
that one day, when Mazeppa was visiting the Eus- 
sian court, and was at table with the czar, Peter 
complained to him of the lawless character of the 
Cossacks, and proposed that Mazeppa should seek 
to bring them under better control by a system of 
organization and discipline. 

The chief replied that such measures would never 
succeed. The Cossacks were so fierce and uncon- 
trollable by nature, he said, and so fixed in their ir- 
regular habits of warfare, that it would be impos- 
sible to get them to submit to military discipline, 
and they must continue to fight in their old, wild 
way. 

These words were like fire to flax. Peter, who 



152 HISTORICAL TALES. 

never could bear the least opposition to any of his 
plans or projects, and was accustomed to have every- 
body timidly agree with him, broke into a furious 
rage at this contradiction, and visited his sudden 
wrath on Mazeppa, as usual, in the most violent 
language. He was an enemy and a traitor, who 
deserved to be and should be impaled alive, roared 
the furious czar, not meaning a tithe of what he said, 
but saying enough to turn the high-spirited chief 
from a friend to a foe. 

Mazeppa left the czar's presence in deep offence, 
muttering the displeasure which it would have been 
death to speak openly, and bent on revenge. Soon 
after he entered into communication with Charles 
XII. of Sweden, the bitter enemy of Eussia, which he 
was then invading. He suggested that the Swedish 
army should advance into Southern Eussia, where 
the Cossacks would be sure to be sent to meet it. 
He would then go over with all his forces to the 
Swedish side, so strengthening it that the army of the 
czar could not stand against it. The King of Sweden 
might retain the territory won by his arms, while 
the Cossacks would retire to their own land, and be- 
come again, as of old, an independent tribe. 

The plot was well laid, but it failed through the 
loyalty of the Cossacks. They broke into wild in- 
dignation when Mazeppa unfolded to them his plan, 
most of them refusing to join in the revolt, and 
threatening to seize him and deliver him, bound hand 
and foot, to the czar. Some two thousand in all ad- 
hered to Mazeppa, and for a time it seemed as if a 
bloody battle would take place between the two sec- 



MAZEPPA, THE COSSACK CHIEF. 153 

tions of the tribe, but in the end the chief and his 
followers made their way to the Swedish camp, while 
the others marched back and put themselves under 
the command of the nearest Eussian general. 

Mazeppa was now sentenced to death, and exe- 
cuted, — luckily for him, in eflSgy only. In person he 
was out of the reach of his foes. A wooden image 
was made to represent the culprit, and on this dumb 
block the penalties prescribed for him were inflicted. 
A pretty play — for a savage horde — they made of it. 
The image was dressed to imitate Mazeppa, while 
representations of the medals, ribbons, and other 
decorations he usually wore were placed upon it. It 
was then brought out before the general and leading 
officers, the soldiers being drawn up in a square 
around it. A herald now read the sentence of con- 
demnation, and the mock execution began. First 
Mazeppa's patent of knighthood was torn to pieces 
and the fragments flung into the air. Then the 
medals and decorations were rent from the image 
and trampled underfoot. Finally the image itself 
was struck a blow that toppled it over into the dust. 
The hangman now took it in hand, tied a rope round 
its neck, and dragged it to a gibbet, on which it was 
hung. The afl'air ended in the Cossacks choosing a 
new chief. 

The remainder of Mazeppa's story may soon be 
told. The battle of Pultowa, fought, it is said, by 
his advice, ended the military career of the great 
Swedish general. The Cossack chief made his es- 
cape, with the King of Sweden, into Turkish terri- 
tory, and the reward which the czar offered for his 



154 HISTORICAL TALES. 

body, dead or alive, was never claimed. Mentchikof 
took what revenge he could by capturing and sacking 
his capital city, Baturin, while throughout Eussia his 
name was anathematized from the pulpit. Traitor in 
his old days, and a fugitive in a foreign land, the dis- 
grace of his action seemed to weigh heavily upon 
the mind of the old chief of the Ukraine, and in the 
following year he put an end to the wretchedness of 
his hfe by poison. 



A WINDOW OPEN TO EUROPE. 

Peter the Great hated Moscow. It was to him 
the embodiment of that old Eussia which he was 
seeking to reform out of existence. Had he been able 
to work his own will in all things, he would never 
have set foot within its walls ; but circumstances are 
stronger than men, even though the latter be Russian 
czars. In one respect Peter set himself against cir- 
cumstance, and built Eussia a capital in a locality 
seemingly lacking in all natural adaptation for a city- 

In the early days of the eighteenth century his 
armies captured a small Swedish fort on Lake Ladoga 
near the river Neva. The locality pleased him, and 
he determined to build on the Neva a city which 
should serve Eussia as a naval station and commer- 
cial port in the north. Why he selected this spot it 
is not easy to say. Better localities for his purpose 
might have been easily chosen. There was old Nov- 
gorod, a centre of commerce during many centuries 
of the past, which it would have been a noble tribute 
to ancient Eussian history to revive. There was 
Eiga, a city better situated for the Baltic commerce. 
But Peter would have none of these ; he wanted a 
city of his own, one that should carry his name down 
through the ages, that should rival the Alexandria of 
Alexander the Great, and he chose for it a most in- 
auspicious and inhospitable site. 

165 



156 HISTORICAL TALES. 

The Neva, a short but deep and wide stream, 
which carries to the sea the waters of the great 
lakes Ladoga, Onega, and Ihnen, breaks up near its 
mouth and makes its way into the Gulf of Finland 
through numerous channels, between which lie a 
series of islands. These then bore Finnish names 
equivalent to Island of Hares, Island of Buffaloes, 
and the like. Overgrown with thickets, their sur- 
faces marshy, liable to annual overflow, inhabited 
only by a few Finnish fishermen, who fled from their 
huts to the mainland when the waters rose, they 
were far from promising; yet these islands took 
Peter's fancy as a suitable site for a commercial 
port, and with his usual impetuosity he plunged into 
the business of making a city to order. 

In truth, he fell in love with the spot, though what 
he saw in it to admire is not so clear. In summer 
mud ruled there supreme: the very name ]^eva is 
Finnish for " mud." During four months of the year 
ice took the place of mud, and the islands and stream 
were fettered fast. The country surrounding was 
largely a desert, its barren plains alternating with 
forests whose only inhabitants were wolves. Years 
after the city was built, wolves prowled into its 
streets and devoured two sentries in front of one of 
the government buildings. Moscow lay four hun- 
dred miles away, and the country between was bleak 
and almost uninhabited. Even to-day the traveller 
on leaving St. Petersburg finds himself in a desert. 
The great plain over which he passes spreads away 
in every direction, not a steeple, not a tree, not a man 
or beast, visible upon its bare expanse. There is no 



A WINDOW OPEN TO EUROPE, 157 

pasturage nor farming land. Fruits and vegetables 
can scarcely be grown ; corn must be brought from 
a distance. Eye is an article of garden culture in 
St. Petersburg, cabbages and turnips are its only 
vegetables, and a beehive there is a curiosity. 

Yet, as has been said, Peter was attracted to the 
place, which in one of his letters he called his " para- 
dise." It may have reminded him of Holland, 
the scene of his nautical education. The locality 
had a certain sacredness in Eussian tradition, being 
looked upon as the most ancient Eussian ground. 
By the mouth of the l^eva had passed Eurik and 
his fellows in their journeys across the Yarangian 
sea, — their own sea. The czar was willing to restore 
to Sweden all his conquests in Livonia and Esthonia, 
but the Neva he would not yield. From boyhood 
he had dreamed of giving Eussia a navy and opening 
it up to the world's commerce, and here was a ready 
opening to the waters of the Baltic and the distant 
Atlantic. 

St. Petersburg owed its origin to a whim ; but it 
was the whim of a man whose will swayed the 
movements of millions. He was not even willing to 
begin his work on the high ground of the mainland, 
but chose the Island of Hares, the nearest of the 
islands to the gulf. It was a seaport, not a capital, 
that he at first had in view. Legend tells us that he 
snatched a halberd from one of his soldiers, cut with 
it two strips of turf, and laid them crosswise, saying, 
" Here there shall be a town." Then, dropping the 
halberd, he seized a spade and began the first em- 
bankment. As he dug, an eagle appeared and hov- 



158 HISTORICAL TALES. 

ered above his head. Shot by one of the men, it 
fluttered to his feet. Picking up the wounded bird, 
he set out in a boat to explore the waters around. 
To this event is given the date of May 16, 1703. 

The city began in a fortress, for the building of 
which carpenters and masons were brought from 
distant towns. The soldiers served as laborers. In 
this labor tools were notable chiefly for their absence. 
Wheelbarrows were unknown ; they are still but 
little used in Eussia. Spades and baskets were 
equally lacking, and the czar's impatience could not 
wait for them to be procured. The men scraped up 
the earth with their hands or with sticks and carried 
it in the skirts of their caftans to the ramparts. 
The czar sent orders to Moscow that two thousand 
of the thieves and outlaws destined for Siberia should 
be despatched the next summer to the Neva. 

The fort was at first built of wood, which was re- 
placed by stone some years afterwards. Logs served 
for all other structures, for no stone was to be had. 
Afterwards every boat coming to the town was re- 
quired to bring a certain number of stones, and, to 
attract masons to the new city, the building of stone 
houses in Moscow or elsewhere was forbidden. As for 
the fortress, which was erected at no small cost in life 
and money, it soon became useless, and to-day it only 
protects the mint and cathedral of St. Petersburg. 

The new city was named St. Petersburg, after the 
patron saint of its founder. While the fort was in 
process of erection a church was also built, dedi- 
cated to St. Peter and St. Paul. The site of this 
wooden edifice is now occupied by the cathedral, 



A WINDOW OPEN TO EUROPE. 159 

begun in 1714, ten years later. As regarded a home 
for himself, Peter was easily satisfied. A hut of logs 
— his palace he called it — was built near the fortress, 
fifty-five feet long by twenty-five wide, and contain- 
ing but three rooms. At a later date, to preserve 
this his first place of residence in his new city, he 
enclosed it within another building. Thus it still 
remains, a place of pilgrimage for devout Eussians. 
It contains many relics of the great czar. His bed- 
room is now a chapel. 

Such a city, in such a situation, should have taken 
years to build. Peter wished to have it done in 
months, and he pushed the labor with little regard 
for its cost in life and treasure. Men were brought 
from all sections of Eussia and put to work. Disease 
broke out among them, engendered by the dampness 
of the soil ; but the work went on. Floods came and 
covered the island, drowning some of the sick in their 
beds; but there was no alleviation. History tells us 
that Swedish prisoners were employed, and that 
they died by thousands. Death, in Peter's eyes, was 
only an unpleasant incident, and new workmen were 
brought in multitudes, many of them to perish in 
their turn. It has been said that the building of the 
city cost two hundred thousand lives. This is, no 
doubt, an exaggeration, but it indicates a frightful 
mortality. But the feverish impatience of the czar 
told in results, and by 1714 the city possessed over 
thirty-four thousand buildings, with inhabitants in 
proportion. 

The floods came and played their part in the work 
of death. In that of 1706, Peter measured water 



160 HISTORICAL TALES. 

twenty-one inches deep on the floor of his hut. He 
thought it " extremely amusing" as men, women, 
and children were swept past his windows on float- 
ing wreckage down the stream. What the people 
themselves thought of it history does not say. 

As yet Peter had no design of making St. Peters- 
burg the capital of his empire. That conception 
seems not to have come to him until after the crush- 
ing defeat of the Swedish monarch Charles XII. at 
the battle of Pultowa. And indeed it was not until 
1817 that it was made the capital. It was the fifth 
Eussian capital, its predecessors in that honor having 
been J^ovgorod, Kief, Yladimir, and Moscow. 

To add a commercial quarter to the new city, 
Peter chose the island of Yasily Ostrof, — the Finnish 
" Island of Buffaloes," — where a town was laid out 
in the Dutch fashion, with canals for streets. This 
island is still the business centre of the city, though 
the canals have long since disappeared. The streets 
of St. Petersburg for many years continued unpaved, 
notwithstanding the marshy character of the soil, 
and in the early days boats replaced carriages for 
travel and traflic. 

The work of building the new capital was not con- 
fined to the czar. The nobles were obliged to build 
palaces in it, — very much to their chagrin. They 
hated St. Petersburg as cordially as Peter hated 
Moscow. They already had large and elegant man- 
sions in the latter city, and had little rehsh for build- 
ing new ones in this desert capital, four hundred 
miles to the north. But the word of the czar was 
law, and none dared say him nay. Every proprietor 







V //A.:'' -lii.- 



^f, 



SLEIGHING IN RUSSIA. 



A WINDOW OPEN TO EUROPE. 161 

whose estate held five hundred serfs was ordered to 
build a stone house of two stories in the new city. 
Those of greater wealth had to build more preten- 
tious edifices. Peter's own taste in architecture 
was not good. He loved low and small rooms. 
None of his palaces were fine buildings. In build- 
ing the Winter Palace, whose stories were made high 
enough to conform to others on the street, he had 
double ceilings put in his special rooms, so as to re- 
duce their height. 

The city under way, the question of its defence 
became prominent. The Swedes, the mortal enemies 
of the czar, looked with little favor on this new pro- 
ject, and their prowling vessels in the gulf seemed 
to threaten it with attack. Peter made vigorous 
efforts to prepare for defence. Ship-building went on 
briskly on the Svir Eiver, between Lakes Ladoga and 
Onega, and the vessels were got down as quickly as 
possible into the Neva. Peter himself explored and 
measured the depth of water in the Gulf of Finland. 
Here, some twenty miles from the city, lay the island 
of Cronslot, seven miles long, and in the narrowest 
part of the gulf. The northern channel past this 
island proved too shallow to be a source of danger. 
The southern channel was navigable, and this the 
czar determined to fortify. 

A fort was begun in the water near the island's 
shores, stone being sunk for its foundation. Work 
on it was pressed with the greatest energy, for fear 
of an attack by the Swedish fleet, and it was com- 
pleted before the winter's end. With the idea of 
making this his commercial port, Peter had many 

11 



162 HISTORICAL TALES. 

stone warehouses built on the island, most of which 
soon fell into decay for want of use. But to-day 
Cronstadt, as the new town and fortress were called, 
is the greatest naval station and the most flourishing 
commercial city in Eussia, while its fortifications 
protect the capital from any danger of assault. 

In those early days, however, St. Petersburg was 
designed to be the centre of commerce, and Peter 
took what means he could to entice merchant vessels 
to his new city. The first to appear — coming almost 
by accident — was of Dutch build. It arrived in 
]N"ovember, 1703, and Peter himself served as pilot 
to bring it up to the town. Great was the astonish- 
ment of the skipper, on being afterwards presented 
to the czar, to recognize in him his late pilot. And 
Peter's delight was equally great on learning that 
the ship had been freighted by Cornells Calf, one of 
his old Zaandam friends. The skipper was feasted 
to his heart's content and presented with five hun- 
dred ducats, while each sailor received thirty thalers, 
and the ship was renamed the St. Petersburg. Two 
other ships appeared the same year, one Dutch and 
one English, and their skippers and crews received 
the same reward. These pioneer vessels were ex- 
empted forever from all tolls and dues at that port. 

St. Petersburg, as it exists to-day, bears very little 
resemblance to the city of Peter's plan. To his suc- 
cessors are due the splendid granite quays, which 
aid in keeping out the overflowing stream, the rows 
of palaces, the noble churches and public buildings, 
the statues, columns, and other triumphs of archi- 
tecture which abundantly adorn the great modern 



A WINDOW OPEN TO EUROPE. 163 

capital. The marshy island soil has been lifted by- 
two centuries of accretions, while the main city has 
crept up from its old location to the mainland, where 
the fashionable quarters and the government offices 
now stand. 

St. Petersburg is still exposed to yearly peril by 
overflow. The violent autumnal storms, driving the 
waters of the gulf into the channel of the stream, 
back up terrible floods. The spring-time rise in the 
lakes which feed the Neva threatens similar disaster. 
In 1721 Peter himself narrowly escaped drowning 
in the JN'evski Prospect, now the finest street in 
Europe. 

Of the floods that have desolated the city, the 
greatest was that of November, 1824. Driven into 
the river's mouth by a furious southwest storm, the 
waters of the gulf were heaped up to the first stories 
of the houses even in the highest streets. Horses 
and carriages were swept away ; bridges were torn 
loose and fioated off; numbers of houses were moved 
from their foundations ; a full regiment of carbi- 
neers, who had taken refuge on the roof of their bar- 
racks, perished in the furious torrent. At Cronstadt 
the waters rose so high that a hundred-gun ship was 
left stranded in the market-place. The czar, who had 
just returned from a long journey to the east, found 
himself made captive in his own palace. Standing 
on the balcony which looks up the Neva, surrounded 
by his weeping family, he saw with deep dismay 
wrecks of every kind, bridges and merchandise, 
horses and cattle, and houses peopled with helpless 
inmates, swept before his eyes by the raging flood. 



164 HISTORICAL TALES. 

Boats were overturned and emptied their crews into 
the stream. Some who escaped death by drowning 
died from the bitter cold as they floated downward 
on vessels or rafts. It seemed almost as if the whole 
city would be carried bodily into the gulf 

The official reports of this disaster state that forty- 
five hundred of the people perished, — probably not 
half the true figure. Of the houses that remained, 
many were ruined, and thousands of poor wretches 
wandered homeless through the drenched streets. 
Such was one example of the inheritance left by 
Peter the Great to the dwellers in his favorite city, 
his " window to Europe," as it has been called. 



FROM THE HOVEL TO THE 
THRONE, 

The reign of Peter the Great was signalized by 
two notable instances of the rise of persons from the 
lowest to the highest estate, ability being placed 
above birth and talent preferred to noble descent. 
A poor boy, Mentchikof by name, son of a monas- 
tery laborer, had made his way to Moscow and there 
found employment with a pastry-cook, who sent him 
out daily with a basket of mince pies, which he was 
to sell in the streets. The boy was destitute of 
education, but he had inherited a musical voice and 
a lively manner, which stood him in good stead in 
proclaiming the merits of his wares. He could sing 
a ballad in taking style, and became so widely known 
for his songs and stories that he was often invited 
into gentlemen's houses to entertain company. His 
voice and his wit ended in making him a prince of 
the empire, a favorite of the czar, and in the end 
virtually the emperor of Eussia. 

Being one day in the kitchen of a boyar's house, 
where dinner was being prepared for the czar, 
who had promised to dine there that day, young 
Mentchikof overheard the master of the house give 
special directions to his cook about a dish of meat 
of which he said the czar was especially fond, and 

166 



166 HISTORICAL TALES. 

noticed that he furtively dropped a powder of some 
kind into it, as if by way of spice. 

This act seemed suspicious to the acute lad. 
Noting particularly the composition of the dish, he 
betook himself to the street, where he began again 
to exalt the merits of his pies and to entertain the 
passers-by with ballads. He kept in the vicinity of 
the boyar's house until the czar arrived, when he 
raised his voice to its highest pitch and began to 
sing vociferously. The czar, attracted b}^ the boy's 
voice and amused by his manner, called him up, and 
asked him if he would sell his stock in trade, basket 
and all. 

" I have orders only to sell the pies," replied the 
shrewd vender : " I cannot sell the basket without 
asking my master's leave. But, as everything in 
Eussia belongs to your majesty, you have only to lay 
on me your commands." 

This answer so greatly pleased the czar that he 
bade the boy come with him into the house and wait 
on him at table, much to the young pie-vender's 
joy, as it was just the result for which he had 
hoped. The dinner went on, Mentcbikof waiting 
on the czar with such skill as he could command, 
and watching eagerly for the approach of the sus- 
pected dish. At length it was brought in and placed 
on the table before the czar. The boy thereupon 
leaned forward and whispered in the monarch's ear, 
begging him not to eat of that dish. 

Surprised at this request, and quick to suspect 
something wrong, the czar rose and walked into an 
adjoining room, bidding the boy accompany him. 



PROM THE HOVEL TO THE THRONE. 167 

" What do you mean ?" he asked. " Why should I 
not eat of that particular dish ?" 

" Because I am afraid it is not all right," answered 
the boy. " I was in the kitchen while it was being 
prepared, and saw the boyar, when the cook's back 
was turned, drop a powder into the dish. I do not 
know what all this meant, but thought it my duty 
to put your majesty on your guard." 

" Thanks for your shrewdness, my lad," said the 
czar ; " I will bear it in mind." 

Peter returned to the table with his wonted cheer- 
fulness of countenance, giving no indication that he 
had heard anything unusual. 

" I should like your majesty to try that dish," said 
the boyar : " I fancy that you will find it very 
good." 

" Come sit here beside me," suggested Peter. It 
was the custom at that time in Moscow for the mas- 
ter of a house to wait on the table when he enter- 
tained guests. 

Peter put some of the questionable dish on a plate 
and placed it before his host. 

" 'No doubt it is good," he said. " Try some of it 
yourself and set me an example." 

This request threw the host into a state of the 
utmost confusion, and with trembling utterance he 
replied that it was not becoming for a servant to eat 
with his master. 

" It is becoming to a dog, if I wish it," answered 
Peter, and he set the plate on the floor before a dog 
which was in the room. 

In a moment the brute had emptied the dish. But 



168 HISTORICAL TALES. 

in a short time the poor animal was seen to be in 
convulsions, and it soon fell dead before the as- 
sembled company. 

" Is this the dish you recommended so highly ?" 
said Peter, fixing a terrible look on the shrinking 
boyar. " So I was to take the place of that dead 
dog?" 

Orders were given to have the animal opened and 
examined, and the result of the investigation proved 
beyond doubt that its death was due to poison. The 
culprit, however, escaped the terrible punishment 
which he would have suffered at Peter's hands by 
taking his own life. He was found dead in bed the 
next morning. 

We do not vouch for the truth of this interest- 
ing story. Though told by a writer of Peter's time, 
it is doubted by late historians. But such is the 
fate of the best stories afloat, and the voice of doubt 
threatens to rob history of much of its romance. 
The story of Mentchikof, in its most usual shape, 
states that Le Fort, general and admiral, was the 
first to be attracted to the sprightly boy, and that 
Peter saw him at Le Fort's house, was delighted with 
him, and made him bis page. 

The pastry-cook's boy soon became the indispen- 
sable companion of the czar, assisted him in his 
workshop, attended him in his wars, and at the siege 
of Azov displayed the greatest bravery. He accom- 
panied Peter in his travels, worked with him in Hol- 
land, and distinguished himself in the wars with the 
Swedes, receiving the order of St. Andrew for gal- 
lantry at the battle of the Neva. In 1704 he was 



FROM THE HOVEL TO THE THRONE. 169 

given the rank of general, and was the first to defeat 
the Swedes in a pitched battle. At the czar's request 
he was made a prince of the Holy Eoman Empire. 

As Prince Mentchikof the new grandee loomed 
high. His house in Moscow was magnificent, his 
banquets were gorgeous with gold and silver plate, 
and the ambassadors of the powers of Europe fig- 
ured among his guests. Such was the bright side 
of the picture. The dark side was one of extortion 
and robbery, in which the favorite of the czar out- 
did in peculation all the other ofiicials of the realm. 

Peculation in Eussia, indeed, assumed enormous 
proportions, but this was a crime towards which 
Peter did not manifest his usual severity. Two of 
the robbers in high places were executed, but the 
others were let off" with fines and a castigation with 
Peter's walking-stick, which he was in the habit of 
using freely on high and low alike. As for Mentchi- 
kof, he was incorrigible. So high was he in favor 
with his master that the senators, who had abun- 
dant proofs of his robberies and little love for him 
personally, dared not openly accuse him before the 
czar. The most they ventured to do was to draw up 
a statement of his peculations and lay the paper on 
the table at the czar's seat. Peter saw it, ran his 
eye over its contents, but said nothing. Day after 
day the paper lay in the same place, but the czar 
continued silent. One day as he sat in the senate, the 
senator Tolstoi, who sat beside him, was bold enough 
to ask him what he thought of that document. 

" Nothing," Peter replied, " but that Mentchikof 
will always be Mentchikof." 



170 HISTORICAL TALES. 

The death of Peter placed the favorite in a pre- 
carious position. He had a host of enemies, who 
would have rejoiced in his downfall. These, who 
formed what may be called the Old Eussian party, 
wished to proclaim as monarch the grandson of the 
deceased czar. But Mentchikof and the party of 
reform were beforehand with them, and gave the 
throne to Catharine, the widow of the late monarch. 
Under her the pastry-cook's boy rose to the summit 
of his power and virtually governed the country. 
Unluckily for the favorite, Catharine died in two 
years, and a new czar, Peter II., grandson of Peter 
the Great, came to the throne. 

Mentchikof had been left guardian of the youth- 
ful czar, to whom his daughter was betrothed, and 
whom he took to his house and surrounded with 
his creatures. And now for a time the favorite 
soared higher than ever, was practically lord of 
the land, and made himself more feared than had 
been Peter himself 

But he had reached the verge of a precipice. 
There was no love between the young czar and 
Mary Mentchikof, and the youthful prince was soon 
brought to dislike his guardian. Events moved fast. 
Peter left Mentchikof s house and sought the summer 
palace, to which his guardian was refused admittance. 
Soon after he was arrested, the shock of the dis- 
grace bringing on an apoplectic stroke. In vain he 
appealed to the emperor ; he was ordered to retire to 
his estate, and soon after was banished, with his 
whole famil}^, to Siberia. This was in 1727. The 
disgraced favorite survived his exile but two years, 



FROM THE HOVEL TO THE THRONE. 171 

dying of apoplexy in 1729. Four months afterwards 
the new czar followed in death the man he had dis- 
graced. 

The other instance of a rise from low to high 
estate was that of the empress herself, whose career 
was very closely related to that of Mentchikof 
There are various instances in history of a woman 
of low estate being chosen to share a monarch's 
throne, but only one, that of Catharine of Eussia, 
in which a poor stranger, taken from among the 
ruins of a plundered town, became eventually the 
absolute sovereign of that empire into which she 
had been carried as captive or slave. 

It was in 1702, during the sharply contested war 
between Eussia and Sweden, that, while Charles 
XII. of Sweden was making conquests in Poland, 
the Eussian army was having similar success in 
Livonia and Ingria. Among the Eussian successes 
was the capture of a small town named Marienburg, 
which surrendered at discretion, but whose maga- 
zines were blown up by the Swedes. This behavior 
so provoked the Eussian general that he gave orders 
for the town to be destroyed and all its inhabitants 
to be carried off. 

Among the prisoners was a girl, Catharine by 
name, a native of Livonia, who had been left an 
orphan at the age of three years, and had been 
brought up as a servant in the family of M. Griuck, 
the minister of the place. Such was the humble 
origin of the woman who was to become the wife 
of Peter the Great, and afterwards Catharine I., 
Empress of Eussia. 



172 HISTORICAL TALES. 

In 1702 Catharine, then seventeen years of age, 
married a Swedish dragoon, one of the garrison of 
Marienburg. Her married life was a short one, her 
husband being obliged to leave her in two days to 
join his regiment. She never saw him again. She 
could neither read nor write, and, like Mentchikof, 
never learned those arts. She was, however, hand- 
some and attractive, delicate and well formed, and of 
a most excellent temper, being never known to be 
out of humor, while she was obliging and civil to all, 
and after her exaltation took good care of the family 
of her benefactor G-luck. As for her first husband, 
she sent him sums of money until 1705, when he was 
killed in battle. 

It was a common fate of prisoners of war then to 
be sold as slaves to the Turks, but the beauty of 
Catharine saved her from this. After some vicis- 
situdes, she fell into the hands of Mentchikof, at 
whose quarters she was seen by the czar. Struck 
by her beauty and good sense, Peter took her to 
his palace, where, finding in her a warm appre- 
ciation of his plans of reform and an admirable 
disposition, he made her his own by a private mar- 
riage. In 1711 this was supplemented by a public 
wedding. 

Catharine was soon able amply to reward the czar 
for the honor he had conferred upon her. He was 
at war with the Turks, and, through a foolish con- 
tempt for their generalship and military skill, al- 
lowed himself to fall into a trap from which there 
seemed no escape. He found himself completely 
surrounded by the enemy and cut off from all sup- 



PROM THE HOVEL TO THE THRONE. 173 

plies, and it seemed as if he would be forced to sur- 
render with his whole force to the despised foe. 

From this dilemma Catharine, who was in the 
camp, relieved him. Collecting a large sum of 
money and presents of jewelry, and seeking the 
camp of the enemy, she succeeded in bribing the 
Turkish general, or in some way inducing him to 
conclude peace and suifer the Eussian army to 
escape. Peter repaid his able wife by conferring 
upon her the dignity of empress. 

The death of the czar was followed, as we have 
said, by the elevation of his wife to the vacant 
throne, principally through the aid of Mentchikof, 
her former lord and master, aided by the effect of 
her seemingly inconsolable grief and the judicious 
distribution of money and jewels as presents. 

For two years Catharine and Mentchikof, whose 
life had begun in the hovel, and who were now vir- 
tually together on the throne, were the unquestioned 
autocrats of Eussia. Catharine had no genius for 
government, and left the control of affairs to her 
minister, who was to all intents and purposes sov- 
ereign of Eussia. The empress, meanwhile, passed 
her days in vice and dissipation, thereby hastening 
her end. She died in 1727, at the age of about forty 
years. In the same year, as already stated, the man 
who had grown great with her fell from his high 
estate. 



BUFFOONERIES OF THE RUS- 
SIAN COURT. 

Amid the serious matters which present them- 
selves so abundantly in the history of Eussia, buf- 
fooneries of the coarsest character at times find 
place. JS'umerous examples pf this might be drawn 
from the reign of Peter the Great, whose idea of 
humor was broad burlesque, and who, despite the 
religious prejudices of the people, did not hesitate to 
make the church the subject of his jests. One of 
the broadest of these farces was that known as 
the Conclave, the purpose of which was to burlesque 
the method of conducting one of the solemn offices 
of the Eoman Church. 

At the court of the czar was an old man named 
Sotof, a drunkard of inimitable powers of imbibi- 
tion, and long a butt for the jests of the court. He 
had taught the czar to write, a service which he 
deemed worthy of being rewarded by the highest 
dignities of the empire. 

Peter, who dearly loved a practical joke, learning 
the aspirations of the old sot, promised to confer on 
him the most eminent office in the world, and ac- 
cordingly appointed him Kniaz Papa, that is, prince- 
pope, with a salary of two thousand roubles and a 
palace at St. Petersburg. The exaltation of Sotof to 
this dignity was solemnized by a performance more 
174 



BUFFOONERIES OF THE RUSSIAN COURT. 175 

gross than ludicrous. Buffoons were chosen to lift 
the new dignitary to his throne, and four fellows 
who stammered with every word delivered absurd 
addresses upon his exaltation. The mock pope then 
created a number of cardinals, at whose head he 
rode through the streets in procession, his seat of 
state being a cask of brandy which was carried on 
a sledge drawn by four oxen. 

The cardinals followed, and after them came 
sledges laden with food and drink, while the music 
of the procession consisted of a hideous turmoil of 
drums, trumpets, horns, fiddles, and hautboys, all 
playing out of time, mingled with the ear-splitting 
clatter of pots and pans vigorously beaten by a 
troop of cooks and scullions. Next came a number 
of men dressed as Eomish monks, each carrying a 
bottle and a glass. In the rear of the procession 
marched the czar and his courtiers, Peter dressed 
as a Dutch skipper, the others wearing various comic 
disguises. 

The place fixed for the conclave being reached, the 
cardinals were led into a long gallery, along which 
had been built a range of closets. In each of these 
a cardinal was shut up, abundantly provided with 
food and drink. To each of the cardinals two con- 
clavists were attached, whose duty it was to ply 
them with brandy, carry insulting messages from 
one to another, and induce them, as they grew tipsy, 
to bawl out all sorts of abuse of one another. To 
all this ribaldry the czar listened with delight, taking 
note at the same time of anything said of which he 
might make future use against the participants. 



176 HISTORICAL TALES. 

This orgy lasted three days and three nights, the 
cardinals not being released until they had agreed 
upon answers to a number of ridiculous questions 
propounded to them by the Kniaz Papa. Then the 
doors were flung open, and the pope and his cardi- 
nals were drawn home at mid-day dead drunk on 
sledges, — that is, such of them as survived, for some 
had actually drunk themselves to death, while others 
never recovered from the effect of their debauch. 

This offensive absurdity appealed so strongly to 
the czar's idea of humor that he had it three times 
repeated, it growing more gross and shameless on 
each successive occasion; and during the last con- 
clave Peter indulged in such excesses that his death 
was hastened by their effects. 

As for the national church of Eussia, Peter treated 
it with contemptuous indifference. The office of 
patriarch becoming vacant, he left it unfilled for 
twenty-one years, and finally, on being implored by 
a delegation from the clergy to appoint a patriarch, 
he started up in a furious passion, struck his breast 
with his fist and the table with his cutlass, and 
roared out, " Here, here is your patriarch !" He 
then stamped angrily from the room, leaving the 
prelates in a state of utter dismay. 

Soon after he took occasion to make the church 
the subject of a second coarse jest. Another buffoon 
of the court, Buturlin by name, was appointed Kniaz 
Papa, and a marriage arranged between him and the 
widow of Sotof, his predecessor. The bridegroom 
was eighty- four years of age, the bride nearly as 
old. Some decrepit old men were chosen to play the 



BUFFOONERIES OF THE RUSSIAN COURT. 177 

part of bridesmaids, four stutterers invited the wed- 
ding guests, while four of the most corpulent fellows 
who could be found attended the procession as run- 
ning footmen. A sledge drawn by bears held the 
orchestra, their music being accompanied with roars 
from the animals, which were goaded with iron 
spikes. The nuptial benediction was given in the 
cathedral by a blind and deaf priest, who wore huge 
spectacles. The marriage, the wedding feast, and 
the remaining ceremonies were all conducted in the 
same spirit of broad burlesque, in which one of the 
sacred ceremonies of the Eussian Church was grossly 
paraphrased. 

Peter did not confine himself to coarse jests in his 
efforts to discredit the clergy. He took every oc- 
casion to unmask the trickery of the priests. Peters- 
burg, the new city he was building, was an object of 
abhorrence to these superstitious worthies, who de- 
nounced it as one of the gates of hell, prophesying 
that it would be overthrown by the wrath of heaven, 
and fixing the date on which this was to occur. So 
great was the fear inspired by their prophecies that 
work was suspended in spite of the orders of the 
terrible czar. 

To impress the people with the imminency of the 
peril, the priests displayed a sacred image from whose 
eyes flowed miraculous tears. It seemed to weep 
over the coming fate of the dwellers within the 
doomed city. 

" Its hour is at hand," said the priests ; " it will 
soon be swallowed up, with all its inhabitants, by a 
tremendous inundation." 

12 



178 HISTORICAL TALES. 

When word of this seeming miracle and of the 
consternation which it had produced was brought to 
the czar, he hastened with his usual impetuosity 
to the spot, bent on exposing the dangerous fraud 
which his enemies were perpetrating. He found the 
weeping image surrounded by a multitude of super- 
stitious citizens, who gazed with open-eyed wonder 
and reverence on the miraculous feat. 

Their horror was intense when Peter boldly ap- 
proached and examined the image. Petrified with 
terror, they looked to see him stricken dead by a 
bolt from heaven. But their feelings changed when 
the czar, Vjreaking open the head of the image, 
explained to them the ingenious trick which the 
priests had devised. The head was found to contain 
a reservoir of congealed oil, which, as it was melted 
by the heat of lighted tapers beneath, flowed out 
drop by drop through artfully provided holes, and 
ran from the eyes like tears. On seeing this the 
dismay of the people turned to anger against the 
priests, and the building of the city went on. 

The court fool was an institution born in bar- 
barism, though it survived long into the age of civ- 
ilization, having its latest survival in Eussia, the 
last European state to emerge from barbarism. In 
the days of Peter the Great the fool was a fixed 
institution in Eussia, though this element of court 
life had long vanished from Western Europe. In 
truth, the buffoon flourished in Eussia like a green 
bay-tree. Peter was never satisfied with less than a 
dozen of these fun-making worthies, and a private 
family which could not afford at least one hired 



BUFFOONERIES OF THE RUSSIAN COURT. 179 

fool was thought to be in very straitened circum- 
stances. 

In the reign of the empress Anne the number of 
court buifoons was reduced to six, but three of the 
six were men of the highest birth. They had been 
degraded to this office for some fault, and if they re- 
fused to perform such fooleries as the queen and her 
courtiers desired they were whipped with rods. 

Among those who suffered this indignity was 
no less a grandee than Prince Galitzin. He had 
changed his religion, and for this offence he was 
made court page, though he was over forty years of 
age, and buffoon, though his son was a lieutenant 
in the army, and his family one of the first in the 
realm. His name is here given in particular as he 
was made the subject of a cruel jest, which could 
have been perpetrated nowhere but in the Eussian 
court at that period. 

The winter of 1740, in which this event took 
place, was of unusual severity. Prince Galitzin's 
wife having died, the empress forced him to marry 
a girl of the lowest birth, agreeing to defray the 
cost of the wedding, which proved to be by no means 
small. 

As a preliminary a house was built wholly of ice, 
and all its furniture, tables, seats, ornaments, and 
even the nuptial bedstead, were made of the same 
frigid material. In front of the house were placed 
four cannons and two mortars of ice, so solid in con- 
struction that they were fired several times with- 
out bursting. To make up the wedding procession 
persons of all the nations subject to Eussia, and of 



180 HISTORICAL TALES. 

both sexes, were brought from the several provinces, 
dressed in their national costumes. 

The procession was an extraordinary one. The 
new-married couple rode on the back of an elephant, 
in a huge cage. Of those that followed some were 
mounted on camels, some rode in sledges drawn by 
various beasts, such as reindeer, oxen, dogs, goats, 
and hogs. The train, which all Moscow turned out 
to witness, embraced more th'an three hundred per- 
sons, and made its way past the palace of the em- 
press and through all the principal streets of the 
city. 

The wedding dinner was given in Biren's riding- 
house, which was appropriately decorated, and in 
which each group of the guests were supplied with 
food cooked after the manner of their own country. 
A ball followed, in which the people of each nation 
danced their national dances to their national music. 
The pith of the joke, in the Eussian appreciation 
of that day, came at the end, the bride and groom 
being conducted to a bed of ice in an icy palace, in 
which they were forced to spend the night, guards 
being stationed at the door to prevent their getting 
out before morning. 

Though not so gross as Peter's nuptial jests, this 
was more cruel, and, in view of the social station of 
the groom, a far greater indignity. 

A Eussian state dinner during the reign of Peter 
the Great, as described by Dr. Birch, speaking from 
personal observation, was one in which only those of 
the strongest stomach could safely take part. On 
such occasions, indeed, the experienced ate their din- 



BUFFOONERIES OF THE RUSSIAN COURT. 181 

ners beforehand at home, knowmg well what to ex- 
pect at the czar's table. Ceremony was absolutely 
lacking, and, as two or three hundred persons were 
usually invited to a feast set for a hundred, a most 
undignified scuffling for seats took place, each holder 
of a chair being forced to struggle with those who 
sought to snatch it from him. In this turmoil dis- 
tinguished foreigners had to fight like the natives for 
their seats. 

Finally they took their places without regard to 
dignity or station. '• Carpenters and shipwrights sit 
next to the czar; but senators, ministers, generals, 
priests, sailors, buffoons of all kinds, sit pell-mell, 
without any distinction." And they were crowded 
so closely that it was with great difficulty they could 
lift their hands to their mouths. As for foreigners, 
if they happened to sit between Eussians, they were 
little likely to have any appetite to eat. All this 
Peter encouraged, on the plea that ceremony would 
produce uneasiness and stiffness. 

There was usually but one napkin for two or three 
guests, which they fought for as they had for seats ; 
while each person had but one plate during dinner, 
" so if some Eussian does not care to mix the sauces 
of the different dishes together, he pours the soup 
that is left in his plate either into the dish or into 
his neighbor's plate, or even under the table, after 
which he licks his plate clean with his finger, and, 
last of all, wipes it with the table-cloth." 

Liquids seem to have played as important a part as 
solids at these meals, each guest being obliged to be- 
gin with a cup of brandy, after which great glasses 



182 HISTORICAL TALES. 

of wine were served, " and betweenwhiles a bumper 
of the strongest English beer, by which mixture of 
liquors every one of the guests is fuddled before the 
soup is served up." And this was not confined to 
the men, the women being obliged to take their share 
in the liberal potations. As for the music that played 
in the adjoining room, it was utterly drowned in the 
noise around the table, the uproar being occasionally 
increased by a fighting-bout between two drunken 
guests, which the czar, instead of stopping, wit- 
nessed with glee. 

We may close with a final quotation from Dr. 
Birch. " At great entertainments it frequently hap- 
pens that nobody is allowed to go out of the room 
from noon till midnight ; hence it is easy to imagine 
what pickle a room must be in that is full of people 
who drink like beasts, and none of whom escape 
being dead drunk. 

" They often tie eight or ten young mice in a 
string, and hide them under green peas, or in such 
soups as the Eussians have the greatest appetites 
to, which sets them a kicking and vomiting in a 
most beastly manner when they come to the bottom 
and discover the trick. , They often bake cats, wolves, 
ravens, and the like in their pastries, and when the 
company have eaten them up, they tell them what 
they have in their stomachs. 

" The present butler is one of the czar's buffoons, 
to whom he has given the name of Wiaschi, with 
this privilege, that if any one calls him by that name 
he has leave to drub him with his wooden sword. 
If, therefore, anybody, by the czar's setting them 



BUFFOONERIES OF THE RUSSIAN COURT. 183 

on, calls out Wiaschi, as the fellow does not know 
exactly who it is, he falls to beating them all around, 
beginning with prince Mentchikof and ending with 
the last of the company, without excepting even the 
ladies, whom he strips of their head clothes, as he 
does the old Eussians of their wigs, which he tram- 
ples upon, on which occasion it is pleasant enough to 
see the variety of their bald pates." 

On reading this account of a Eussian court enter- 
tainment two centuries ago, we cannot wonder that 
after the visit of Peter the Great and his suite to 
London it was suggested that the easiest way to 
cleanse the palace in which they had been enter- 
tained might be to set it on fire and burn it to the 
ground. 



HOW A WOMAN DETHRONED A 
MAN 

We have told how one Catharine, of lowly birth 
and the captive of a warlike raid, rose to be Empress 
of Eussia. We have now to tell how a second of the 
same name rose to the same dignity. This one was 
indeed a princess by descent, her birthplace being a 
little German town. But if she began upon a higher 
level than the former Catharine, she reached a higher 
level still, this insignificant German princess be- 
coming known in history as Catharine the Great, 
and having the high distinction of being the only 
woman to whose name the title Great has ever been 
attached. We may here say, however, that many 
women have lived to whom it might have been more 
properly applied. 

In 1744 this daughter of one of the innumerable 
German kinglings became Grand Duchess of Eussia, 
through marriage with Peter, the coming heir to the 
throne. We may here step from the beaten track 
of our story to say that Eussia, at this period of its 
history, was ruled over by a number of empresses, 
though at no other time have women occupied its 
throne. The line began with Sophia, sister of Peter 
the Great, who reigned for some years as virtual 
empress. Catharine, the wife of Peter, became actual 
empress, and was followed, with insignificant inter- 
184 



HOW A WOMAN DETHRONED A MAN. 185 

vals of male rulers, by Anne, Elizabeth, and Catharine 
the G-reat. These male rulers were Peter II., whose 
reign was brief, Ivan, an infant, and Peter III,, hus- 
band of Catharine, who succeeded Elizabeth in 1762. 
It is with the last named that we are concerned. 

Peter III., though grandson of Peter the Great, 
was as weak a man as ever sat on a throne ; Catha- 
rine a woman of unusual energy. For years of their 
married life these two had been enemies. Peter 
had the misfortune to have been born a fool, and 
folly on the throne is apt to make a sorry show. 
He had, besides, become a drunkard and profligate. 
The one good point about him, in the estimation of 
many, was his admiration for Frederick the Great, 
since he came to the throne of Russia at the crisis 
of Frederick's career, and saved him from utter 
ruin by withdrawing the Russian army from his 
opponents. 

His folly soon raised up against him two power- 
ful enemies. One of these was the army, which did 
not object, after fighting with the Austrians against 
the Prussians, to turn and fight with the Prussians 
against the Austrians, but did object to the Prussian 
dress and discipline, which Peter insisted upon intro- 
ducing. It possessed a discipline of its own, which 
it preferred to keep, and bitterly disliked its change 
of dress. The czar even spoke of suppressing the 
Guards, as his grandfather had suppressed the corps 
of the Strelitz. This was a fatal offence. It made 
this strong force his enemy, while he was utterly 
lacking in the resolution with which Peter the Great 
had handled rebels in arms. 



186 HISTORICAL TALES. 

The other enemy was Catharine, whom he had 
deserted for an unworthy favorite. But her enmity 
was quiet, and might have remained so had he not 
added insult to injury. Heated by drink, he called 
her a " fool" at a public dinner before four hundred 
people, including the greatest dignitaries of the realm 
and the foreign ministers. He was not satisfied with 
an insult, but added to it the folly of a threat, that 
of an order for her arrest. This he withdrew, — a 
worse fault, under the circumstances, than to have 
made it. He had taught Catharine that her only 
safety lay in action, if she would not be removed 
from the throne in favor of the worthless creature 
who had supplanted her in her husband's esteem. 

Events moved rapidly. It was on the 21st of June, 
1762, that the insult was given and the threat made. 
Within a month the czar was dead and his wife reigned 
in his stead. On the 24th Peter left St. Petersburg 
for Oranienbaum, his summer residence. He did not 
propose to remain there long. He had it in view to 
join his army and defeat the Danes, his present foes, 
with the less defined intention of gaining glory on 
some great battle-field at the side of his victorious 
ally Frederick the G-reat. The fleet with which Den- 
mark was to be invaded was not ready to sail, many 
of the crew being sick ; but this little difficulty did 
not deter the czar. He issued an imperial ukase 
ordering the sick sailors to get well. 

On going to his summer residence Peter had im- 
prudently left Catharine at St. Petersburg, taking 
his mistress in her stead. On the 29th his wife re- 
ceived orders from him to go to Peterhof. Thither 



HOW A WOMAN DETHRONED A MAN. 187 

he meant to proceed before setting out on his cam- 
paign. His feast-day came on the 10th of July. On 
the morning of the 9th he set out with a large train 
of followers for the palace of Peterhof, where the 
next day Catharine was to give a grand dinner in his 
honor. 

It was two o'clock in the afternoon when Peterhof 
was reached. To the utter surprise of the czar, there 
were none but servants to meet him, and they in a 
state of mortal terror. 

" Where is the empress ?" he demanded. 

" Gone." 

« Where ?" 

No one could tell him. She had simply gone, — 
where and why he was soon to learn. As he waited 
and fumed, a peasant approached and handed him a 
letter, which proved to be from Bressau, his former 
French valet. It contained the astounding informa- 
tion that the empress had arrived in St. Petersburg 
that morning and had been proclaimed sole and abso- 
lute sovereign of Russia. 

The tale was beyond his powers of belief Like a 
madman he rushed through the empty rooms, making 
them resound with vociferous demands for his wife ; 
looked in every corner and cupboard ; rushed wildly 
through the gardens, calling for Catharine again and 
again ; while the crowd of frightened courtiers fol- 
lowed in his steps. It was in vain ; no voice came in 
answer to his demand, no Catharine was to be found. 

The story of what had actually happened is none 
too well known. It has been told in more shapes 
than one. What we know is that there was a con- 



188 HISTORICAL TALES. 

spiracy to place Catharine on the throne, that the 
leaders of the troops had been tampered with, and 
that one of the conspirators, Captain Passek, had 
just been arrested by order of the czar. It was this 
arrest that precipitated the revolution. Fearing that 
all was discovered, the plotters took the only available 
means to save themselves. 

The arrest of Passek had nothing to do with the 
conspiracy. It was for quite another cause. But it 
proved to be an accident with great results, since the 
Orlofs, who were deep in the conspiracy, thought that 
their lives were in danger, and that safety lay only in 
prompt action. As a result, at five a.m. on July 9, 
Alexis Orlof suddenly appeared at Peterhof, and de- 
manded to see the empress at once. 

Catharine was fast asleep when the young officer 
hastily entered her room. He lost no time in waking 
her. She gazed on him with surprise and alarm. 

" It is time to get up," he said, in as calm a tone as 
if he had been announcing that breakfast was wait- 
ing. " Everything is ready for your proclamation." 

" What do you mean ?" she demanded. 

" Passek is arrested. You must come," he said, in 
the same tone. 

This was enough. A long perspective of peril lay 
behind those words. The empress arose, dressed in 
all haste, and sprang into the coach beside which 
Orlof awaited her. One of her women entered with 
her, Orlof seated himself in front, a groom sprang 
up behind, and off they set, at headlong speed, for 
St. Petersburg. 

The distance was nearly twenty miles, and the 



HOW A WOMAN DETHRONED A MAN. 189 

horses, which had already covered that distance, were 
in very poor condition for doubling it without rest. 
In his haste Orlof had not thought of ordering a 
relay. His carelessness might have cost them dear, 
since it was of vital moment to reach the city with- 
out delay. Fortunately, they met a peasant, and 
borrowed two horses from his cart. Those two 
horses perhaps won the throne for Catharine. 

Five miles from the city they met two others of 
the conspirators, devoured with anxiety. Changing 
to the new coach, the party drove in at breakneck 
pace, and halted before the barracks of the Ismail- 
ofsky regiment, with which the conspirators had 
been at work. 

It was between six and seven o'clock in the morn- 
ing. Only a dozen men were at the barracks. 
Nothing had been prepared. Excitement or terror 
had turned all heads. Yet now no time was lost. 
Drummers were roused and drums beaten. Out 
came soldiers in haste, half dressed and half asleep. 

" Shout ' Long live the empress !' " demanded the 
visitors. 

Without hesitation the guardsmen obeyed, their 
only thought at the moment being that of a free flow 
of vodka, the Eussian drink. A priest was quickly 
brought, who, like the soldiers, was prepared to do 
as he was told. Eaising the cross, he hastily oifered 
them a form of oath, to which the soldiers sub- 
scribed. The first step was taken ; the empress was 
proclaimed. 

The proclamation declared Catharine sole and ab- 
solute sovereign. It made no mention of her little 



190 HISTORICAL TALES. 

son Paul, as some of the leaders in the conspiracy- 
had proposed. The Orlofs controlled the situation, 
and the action of the Ismailofsky was soon sanc- 
tioned by other regiments of the guard. They 
hated the czar and were ripe for revolt. 

One regiment only, the Preobrajensky, that of 
which the czar himself was colonel, resisted. It was 
led against the other troops under the command of 
a captain and a major. The hostile bodies came face 
to face a few paces apart ; the queen's party greatest 
in number, but in disorder, the czar's party drawn 
up with military skill. A moment, a word, might 
precipitate a bloody conflict. 

Suddenly a man in the ranks cried out, " Oura! 
Long live the empress !" In an instant the whole 
regiment echoed the cry, the ranks were broken, the 
soldiers embraced their comrades in the other ranks, 
and, falling on their knees, begged pardon of the 
empress for their delay. 

And now the throng turned towards the neigh- 
boring church of Our Lady of Kasan, in which 
Catharine was to receive their oaths of fidelity. A 
crowd pushed in to do homage, composed not only 
of soldiers, but of members of the senate and the 
synod. A manifesto was quickly drawn up by a 
clerk named Tieplof, printed in all haste, and dis- 
tributed to the people, who read it and joined heartily 
in the cry of " Long live the empress !" 

Catharine next reviewed the troops, who again 
hailed her with shouts. And thus it was that a czar 
was dethroned and a new reign begun without the loss 
of a drop of blood. There was some little disorder. 



HOW A WOMAN DETHRONED A MAN. 191 

Several wine-shops were broken into, the house of 
Prince George of Holstein was pillaged and he and 
his wife were roughly handled, but that was all : as 
yet it had been one of the simplest of revolutions. 

Catharine was empress, but how long would she 
remain so? Her empire consisted of the fickle 
people of St. Petersburg, her army of four regiments 
of the guards. If Peter had the courage to strike 
for his throne, he might readily regain it. He had 
with him about fifteen hundred Holsteiners, an ex- 
cellent body of troops, on whose loyalty he could 
fully rely, for they were foreigners in Eussia, and 
their safety depended on him. At the head of these 
troops was one of the first soldiers of the age, Field- 
Marshal Miinich. The main Pussian army was in 
Pomerania, under the orders of the czar, if he were 
alert in giving them. He had it in view to anni- 
hilate the Danes, to show himself a hero under 
Frederick of Prussia ; surely a handful of conspira- 
tors and a few regiments of malcontents would have 
but a shallow chance. 

Yet Catharine knew the man with whom she 
dealt. The grain of courage which would have 
saved Peter was not to be found in his make-up, and 
Munich strove in vain to induce him to act with 
manly resolution. A dozen fancies passed through 
his mind in an hour. He drew up manifestoes for a 
paper campaign. He sent to Oranienbaum for the 
Holstein troops, intending to fortify Peterhof, but 
changed his mind before they arrived. 

Munich now advised him to go to Cronstadt and 
secure himself in that stronghold. After some hesi- 



192 HISTORICAL TALES. 

tation he agreed, but night had fallen before the 
whole party, male and female, set off in a yacht and 
galley, as if on a pleasure-trip. It was one o'clock 
in the morning when they arrived in sight of the 
fortress. 

"Who goes there?" hailed a sentinel from the 
ramparts. 

" The emperor." 

" There is no emperor. Keep off!" 

Delay had given Catharine ample time to get 
ahead of him. 

"Do not heed the sentry," cried Munich. "They 
will not dare to fire on you. Land, and all will be 
safe." 

But Peter was below deck, in a panic of fear. The 
women were shrieking in terror. Despite Munich, the 
vessels were put about. Then the old soldier, half in 
despair at this poltroonery, proposed another plan. 

"Let us go to Eevel, embark on a war-ship, and 
proceed to Pomerauia. There you can take com- 
mand of the army. Do this, sire, and within six 
weeks St. Petersburg and Eussia will be at your feet. 
I will answer for this with my head." 

But Peter was hopelessly incompetent to act. He 
would go back to Oranienbaum. He would nego- 
tiate. He arrived there to learn that Catharine was 
marching on him at the head of her regiments. On 
she came, her cap crowned with oak leaves, her hair 
floating in the wind. The soldiers had thrown off 
their Prussian uniforms and were dressed in their 
old garb. They were eager to fight the Holstein 
foreigners. 



HOW A WOMAN DETHRONED A MAN. 193 

'No opportunity came for this. A messenger met 
them with a flag of truce. Peter had sent an offer 
to divide the power with Catharine. Receiving no 
answer, in an hour he sent an offer to abdicate. He 
was brought to Peterhof, where Catharine had halted, 
and where he cried like a whipped child on receiving 
the orders of the new empress and being forcibly 
separated from the woman who had ruined him. 

A day had changed the fate of an empire. Within 
little more than six months from his accession the 
czar had been hurled from his throne and his wife 
had taken his place. Peter was sent under guard to 
Eopcha, a lonely spot about twenty miles away, 
there to stay until accommodations could be pre- 
pared for him in the strong fortress of Schltissel- 
burg. 

He was never to reach the latter place. He had 
abdicated on July 14. On July 18 Alexis Orlof, 
covered with sweat and dust, burst into the dressing- 
room of the empress. He had a startling story to 
tell. He had ridden full speed from Eopcha with 
the news of the death of Peter III. 

The story was that the czar had been found dead 
in his room. That was doubtless the case, but that 
he had been murdered no one had a shadow of doubt. 
Yet no one knew, and no one knows to this day, just 
what had taken place. Stories of his having been 
poisoned and strangled have been told, not without 
warrant. A detailed account is given of poison being 
forced upon him by the Orlofs, who are said to have, 
on the poison failing to act, strangled him in a re- 
volting manner by their own hands. Though this 

13 



194 HISTORICAL TALES. 

story lacks proof, the body was quite black. " Blood 
oozed through the pores, and even through the 
gloves which covered the hands." Those who kissed 
the corpse came away with swollen lips. 

That Peter was murdered is almost certain ; but 
that Catharine had anything to do with it is not so 
sure. It may have been done by the conspirators to 
prevent any reversal of the revolution. Prison- walls 
have hidden many a dark event ; and we only know 
that the czar was dead and Catharine on the throne. 



A STRUGGLE FOR A THRONE. 

While the armies of Catharine II. were threaten- 
ing with destruction the empire of Turkey, and her 
diplomats were deciding what part of dismembered 
Poland should fall to her share, her throne itself was 
put in danger of destruction by an aspirant who 
arose in the east and for two years kept Eussia 
from end to end in a state of dire alarm. The sum- 
mary manner in which Peter III. had been removed 
from the throne was not relished by the people. 
l!^umerous small revolts broke out, which were suc- 
cessively put down. St. Petersburg accepted Catha- 
rine, but Moscow did not, and on her visits to the 
latter city the political atmosphere proved so frigid 
that she was glad to get back to the more genial 
climate of the city on the Neva. 

Years passed before Russia settled down to full ac- 
ceptance of a reign begun in violence and sustained 
by force, and in this interval there were no fewer 
than six impostors to be dealt with, each of whom 
claimed to be Peter III. Murdered emperors sleep 
badly in their graves. The example of the false 
Dmitris, generations before, remained in men's 
minds, and it seemed as if every Russian who bore a 
resemblance to the vanished czar was ready to claim 
his vacated seat. 

Of these false Peters, the sixth and most danger- 

195 



196 HISTORICAL TALES. 

ous was a Cossack of the Don, whose actual name 
was Pugatchef, but whose face seemed capable of 
calling up an army wherever it appeared, and who, 
if his ability had been equal to his fortune, might 
easily have seated himself on the throne. The im- 
postor proved to be his own worst foe, and defeated 
himself by his innate barbarity. 

Pugatchef began his career as a common soldier, 
afterwards becoming an officer. Deserting the army 
after a period of service, he made his way to Poland, 
where he dwelt with the monks of that country 
and pretended to equal the best of them in piety. 
Here he was told that he bore a striking resemblance 
to Peter III. The hint was enough. He returned 
to Eussia, where he professed sanctity, dressed like 
a patriarch of the church, and scattered benedic- 
tions freely among the Cossacks of the Don. He 
soon gained adherents among the old orthodox party, 
who were bitter against the religious looseness of the 
court. Finally he gave himself out as Peter III., 
declaring that the story of his death was false, that 
he had escaped from the hands of the assassins, and 
that he desired to win the throne, not for himself, 
but for his infant son Paul. 

The first result of this announcement was that the 
impostor was seized and taken to Kasan as a pris- 
oner. But the carelessness of his guards allowed 
him to escape from his prison cell, and he made his 
way to the Yolga, near its entrance into the Caspian 
Sea, where he began to collect a body of followers 
among the Cossacks of that region. His first open 
declaration was made on September 17, 1773, when 



A STRUGGLE FOR A THRONE. 197 

he appeared with three hundred Cossacks at the 
town of Yaitsk, and published an appeal to orthodox 
believers, declaring that he was the czar Peter III. 
and calling upon them for support. 

His handful of Cossacks soon grew into an army, 
multitudes of the tribesmen gathered around him, 
and in a brief time he found himself at the head of 
a large body of the lowest of the people. The man 
was a savage at heart, betraying his innate depravity 
by foolish and useless cruelties, and in this way pre- 
venting the more educated class of the community 
from joining his ranks. 

Yet he contrived to gather about him an army of 
several thousand men, and obtained a considerable 
number of cannon, with which he soon afterwards 
laid siege to the city of Orenburg. Both Yaitsk 
and Orenburg defied his efforts, but he had greater 
success in the field, defeating two armies in succes- 
sion. These victories gave him new assurance. He 
now caused money to be coined in his name, as 
though he were the lawful emperor, and marched 
northward at the head of a large force to meet the 
armies of the state. 

His army was destitute of order or discipline and 
he wofuUy deficient in military skill, yet his procla- 
mation of freedom to the people, and the opportuni- 
ties he gave them for plunder and outrage, strength- 
ened his hands, and recruits came in multitudes. 
The Tartars, Kirghis, and Bashkirs, who had been 
brought against their will under the Eussian yoke, 
flocked to his standard, in the hope of regaining 
their freedom. Many of the Poles who had been 



198 HISTORICAL TALES. 

banished from their country also sought his ranks, 
and the people of Moscow and its vicinity, who had 
from the first been opposed to Catharine's reign, 
waited his approach that they might break out in 
open rebellion. 

The outbreak had thus become serious, and had 
Pugatchef been skilled as a leader he might have 
won the throne. As it was, his followers showed a 
fiery valor, and, undisciplined as they were, gave the 
armies of the empire no small concern. Bibikof, 
who had been sent to subdue them, failed through 
over-caution, and was slain in the field. His lieu- 
tenants, Galitzin and Michelson, proved more active, 
and frequently defeated the impostor, though only 
to find him rising again with new armies as often as 
the old ones were crushed, like the fabulous giant 
who sprang up in double form whenever cut in twain. 

Prince Galitzin defeated him twice, the last time 
after a furious battle six hours in length. Pugatchef, 
abandoned by his followers, now fled to the Urals, 
but soon appeared again with a fresh body of troops. 
Between the beginning of March and the end of May, 
1774, the rebel chief was defeated six or seven times 
by Michelson, in the end being driven as a fugitive to 
the Ural Mountains. But he had only to raise his 
standard again for fresh armies to spring up as if 
from the ground, and early June found him once 
more in the field. Defeated on June 4, he fled once 
more to the hills, but in the beginning of July was 
facing his foes again at the head of twenty-two 
thousand men. 

Only the cruelty shown by himself and his fol- 



A STRUGGLE FOR A THRONE. 199 

lowers, and his ruthlessness in permitting the plun- 
der and burning of churches and convents, kept back 
the much greater hosts who would otherwise have 
flocked to his ranks. And at this critical moment in 
his career he committed the signal error of failing to 
march on Moscow, the principal seat of the old Kus- 
sian faith which he proposed to restore, and where 
he would have found an army of partisans. He 
marched upon Kasan instead, took the city, but 
failed to capture the citadel. Here he was making 
havoc with fire and sword, when Micheleon came up 
and defeated him in a long and obstinate fight. 

He now fled to the Yolga, wasting the land as he 
went, burning the crops and villages, and leaving 
desolation in his track. Men came in numbers to 
replace those he had lost, and an army of twenty 
thousand was soon again under his command. With 
these he surprised and routed a Eussian force and 
took several forts on the Yolga, while the German 
colonies of Moravians which had been established 
upon that stream, and were among the most indus- 
trious inhabitants of the empire, suffered severely 
at his hands. In the town of Saratof he murdered 
all whom he met. 

As an example of the character of this monster 
in human form, it is related that hearing that an as- 
tronomer from the Imperial Academy of Sciences of 
St. Petersburg was near by, engaged in laying out 
the route of a canal from the Yolga to the Don, he 
ordered him to be brought before him. When the 
peaceful astronomer appeared, the brutal ruflSan bade 
his men to lift him on their pikes " so that he might 



200 HISTORICAL TALES. 

be nearer the stars." Then he ordered him to be cut 
to pieces. 

The end of this carnival of murder came at the 
siege of Zaritzin. Here Michelson came up on the 
22d of August and forced him to raise the siege. 
On the 24th the insurgents were attacked when in 
the intricate passes of the mountains and encumbered 
with baggage-wagons, women, and camp-followers. 
Though thus taken at a disadvantage, they defended 
themselves vigorously, the mass of them falling in 
the mountain passes or being driven over the cliffs 
and precipices. Pugatchef continued to fight till his 
army was destroyed, then made his escape, as so 
often before, swimming the Yolga and vanishing in 
the desert. Only about sixty of his most faithful 
partisans accompanied him in his flight. 

Michelson, failing to reach him in his retreat, took 
care that he should not emerge into the cultivated 
districts. But in the end the Eussians were able 
to capture him only by treachery. They won over 
some of their Cossack prisoners, among them Anti- 
zof, the nearest friend of the fugitive. These were 
then set free, and sought the desert retreat of their 
late leader, where they awaited an opportunity to 
take him by surprise. 

This they were not able to do until November. 
Pugatchef was gnawing the bone of a horse for food 
when his false friends ran up to him, saying, " Come, 
you have long enough been emperor." 

Perceiving that treachery was intended, he drew 
his pistol and fired at his foes, shattering the arm of 
the foremost. The others seized and bound him and 



A STRUGGLE FOR A THRONE. 201 

conveyed him to Goroduk in the Ural, the locality 
of Antizof s tribe. Michelson was still seeking him 
in the desert when word came to him that the fugi- 
tive had been delivered into Eussian hands at Sim- 
birsk, and was being conveyed to Moscow in an iron 
cage, like the beast of prey which he resembled in 
character. 

On the way he sought to starve himself, but was 
forced to eat by the soldiers. On reaching Moscow 
he counterfeited madness. His trial was conducted 
without the torture which had formerly been so 
common a feature of Eussian tribunals. The sen- 
tence of the court was that he should be exhibited 
to the people with his hands and feet cut off, and 
then quartered alive. With unyielding resolution 
Pugatchef awaited this cruel death, but the sentence, 
for some reason, was not executed, he being first be- 
headed and then quartered. Four of his principal 
followers suffered the same fate, and thus ended 
one of the most determined efforts on the part of an 
impostor to seize the Eussian throne that had ever 
been known. The undoubted courage of the man 
was enough to prove that he was not Peter III. 
Had he combined mihtary capacity with his daring 
he could readily have won the throne. 



THE FLIGHT OF THE KALMUCKS, 

On the 5th of January, 1771, began one of the 
most remarkable events in the history of the world, 
the migration of an entire nation, more than half a 
million strong, with its women and children, flocks 
and herds, and all that it possessed, to a new home 
four thousand miles away. More than once — many 
times, apparently — in the history of the past such 
migrations have taken place. But those were war- 
like movements, with conquest as their aim. This 
was a peaceful migration, the only desire of those 
concerned being to be let alone. This desire was not 
granted, and death and terror marked every step of 
their frightful journey. 

A century and a half earlier the fathers of these 
people, the Kalmuck Tartars, had left their homes 
in the Chinese empire and wandered west, finding 
a resting-place at last on the Yolga Eiver, in the 
Eussian realm. Here they would have been well 
content to remain but for the arts and designs of 
one man, Zebek-Dorchi by name, who, ambitious to 
be made khan of the tribe, and not being favored in 
his desires by the Eussian court, determined to re- 
move the whole Kalmuck nation beyond the reach 
of Eussian control. 

This was no easy matter to do. Eussia had spread 
to the east until the whole width of Asia lay within 
202 



THE FLIGHT OF THE KALMUCKS. 203 

its broad expanse and its boundary touched tlie Pa- 
cific waves. To reach China, the mighty Mongolian 
plain had to be crossed, largely a desert, swarming 
with hostile tribes ; death and disaster were likely to 
haunt every mile of the way ; and a general tomb in 
the wilderness, rather than a home in a new land, 
was the most probable destiny of the migrating 
horde. 

Zebek-Dorchi was confronted with a difficult task. 
He had to induce the tribesmen to consent to the 
new movement, and that so quickly that a start 
could be made before the Eussians became aware 
of the scheme. Otherwise the path would be lined 
with armies and the movement checked. 

Oubacha, the khan of the Kalmucks, was a brave 
but weak man. The conspirator controlled him, and 
through him the people. On a fixed day, through 
a false alarm that the Kirghises and Bashkirs had 
made an inroad upon the Kalmuck lands, he suc- 
ceeded in gathering a great Kalmuck horde, eighty 
thousand in all, at a point out of reach of Russian 
ears. Here, with subtle eloquence, he told them of 
the oppressions of Russia, of her insults to the Kal- 
mucks, her contempt for their religion, and her de- 
sign to reduce them to slavery, and declared that a 
plan had been devised to rob them of their eldest 
sons. By a skilful mixture of truth and falsehood 
he roused their fears and their anger, and at length 
he proposed that they should leave their fields and 
make a rapid march to the Temba or some other 
great river, from behind which they could speak in 
bolder language to the Russian empress and claim 



204 HISTORICAL TALES. 

better terms. He did not venture as yet to hint at 
his startling plan of a migration to far-off China. 

The simple-minded Tartars, made furious by his 
skilful oratory, accepted his plan by acclamation, and 
returned home to push with the utmost haste the 
preparations for their stupendous task. The idea of 
a migration en masse did not frighten them. They 
were nomads and the descendants of nomads, who 
for ages had been used to fold their tents and flit 
away. 

The Kalmuck villages extended on both sides of the 
Yolga. A large section of the horde would have to 
cross that great stream, and this could be done with 
sufficient speed only when its surface was bridged 
with ice. For this reason midwinter was chosen for 
the flight, despite the sufferings which must arise 
from the bitter Eussian cold, and the 5th of January 
was appointed for religious reasons by the leading 
Lama of the tribe. The year had been selected by 
the Great Lama of Thibet, the head of the Buddhist 
faith, to which the Kalmucks belonged, and to whom 
the conspirator had appealed. 

Despite the secrecy and rapidity of the movement, 
tidings of it reached the Eussian court. But the 
Eussian envoy who dwelt among the Kalmucks was 
quite deceived by their wiles, and sent word to the 
imperial court that the rumors were false and nothing 
resembling an outbreak was in view. The governor 
of Astrachan, a man of more sense and discern- 
ment, sent courier after courier, but his warnings 
were ignored, and the fatal 5th of January came 
without a preventive step being taken by the govern- 



THE FLIGHT OF THE KALMUCKS. 205 

ment. Then the governor, learning that the migra- 
tion had actually begun, sprang into his sleigh and 
drove over the Eussian snows at the furious speed 
of three hundred miles a day, finally rushing into 
the imperial presence-chamber at St. Petersburg to 
announce to the empress that all his warnings had 
been true and that the Kalmucks were in full flight. 
Other couriers quickly confirmed his words, and the 
envoy paid for his blindness by death in a dungeon- 
cell. 

Meanwhile the banks of the Yolga had been the 
locality of a remarkable event. At early dawn of the 
selected day the Kalmucks east of the stream began 
to assemble in troops and squadrons, gathering in tens 
of thousands, a great body of the tribe setting out 
every half-hour on its march. Women and children, 
several hundred thousand in number, were placed on 
wagons and camels, and moved off in masses of twent}^ 
thousand at once, with escorts of mounted men. As 
the march proceeded, outlying bodies of the horde 
kept falling in during that and the following day. 

From sixty to eighty thousand of the best mounted 
warriors stayed behind for work of ruin and re- 
venge. Their first purpose was to destroy their own 
dwellings, lest some of the weak-minded might be 
tempted to return. Oubacha, the khan, set the ex- 
ample by applying the torch to his own palace. 
Before the day was over the villages throughout a 
district of ten thousand square miles were in a simul- 
taneous blaze. Nothing was saved except the port- 
able utensils and such of the wood-work as might be 
used in making the long Tartar lances. 



206 HISTORICAL TALES. 

This was but part of the destruction proposed. 
Zebek-Dorchi had it in view to pillage and destroy 
all the Eussian towns, churches, and buildings of 
every kind within the surrounding district, with 
outrage and death to their inhabitants, — a frightful 
scheme, which was providentially checked. The 
day of flight had been selected, as has been said, in 
the worst season of the year, in order that the tribes 
west of the Yolga might be able to cross its surface 
on a thick bridge of ice. Yet for some reason — 
possibly because of the weakness of the ice — the 
western Kalmucks failed to join their eastern breth- 
ren, and fully one hundred thousand of the Tartars 
were left behind. It was this that saved the Eus- 
sian towns, it being feared by the leaders that such 
a vengeance would be repaid upon their brethren 
left to Eussian reprisal. These western Kalmucks 
little guessed what horrors they were escaping by 
being prevented from joining in the flight. 

The migrating horde was not less than six hun- 
dred thousand strong, while a vast number of horses, 
camels, cattle, goats, and sheep added to the multi- 
tude of living forms. The march was a forced one. 
Every day gained was of prime importance, for it 
was well known that Eussian armies would soon be 
in hot pursuit, while the tribes on their line of 
march, hereditary foes of the Kalmucks, would 
gather from all sides to oppose their passage as 
the news of the flight reached their ears. 

The river Jaik, three hundred miles away, must 
be reached before a day's rest could be had. The 
weather was not severely cold, and the journey might 



THE FLIGHT OF THE KALMUCKS. 207 

have been accomplished with little distress but for the 
forced pace. As it was, the cattle suffered greatly, 
the sheep died in multitudes, milk began to fail, and 
only the great number of camels saved the children 
and the infirm. 

The first of the subjects of Eussia with whom the 
Kalmucks came into collision were the Cossacks of 
the Jaik. At this season most of these were absent 
at the fisheries on the Caspian, and the others fled 
in crowds to the fortress of Koulagina, which was 
quickly summoned to surrender by the Kalmuck 
khan. The Eussian commandant, numerous as were 
his foes, refused, knowing that they must soon re- 
sume their flight. He had not long to wait. On the 
fifth day of the siege, from the walls of the fort a 
number of Tartar couriers, mounted on the swift 
Bactrian camels, were seen to cross the plains and 
ride into the Kalmuck camp at their highest speed. 

Immediately a great agitation was visible in the 
camp, the siege was raised, and the signal for flight 
resounded through the host. The news brought 
was that an entire Kalmuck division, numbering 
nine thousand fighting-men, stationed on a distant 
flank of the line of march, and between whom and 
the Cossacks there was an ancient feud, had been 
attacked and virtually exterminated. The exhaus- 
tion of their horses and camels had prevented flight, 
quarter was not asked or given, and the battle con- 
tinued until not a fighting-man was left alive. 

The utmost speed was now necessary, for a suffi- 
cient reason. The next safe halting-place of the 
Kalmucks was on the east bank of the Toorgai 



208 HISTORICAL TALES. 

Eiver. Between it and them rose a hilly country, 
a narrow defile through which offered the nearest 
and best route. This lost, the need of pasturage 
would require a further sweep of five hundred 
miles. The Cossack light horsemen were only about 
fifty miles more distant from the pass. If it were 
to be won, the most rapid march possible must be 
made. 

For a day and a night the flight went on, with re- 
newed suffering and loss of animals. Then a snow- 
fall, soon too deep to journey through, checked all 
progress, and for ten days they had a season of 
rest, comfort, and plenty. The cows and oxen had 
perished in such numbers that it was resolved to 
slaughter what remained, feast to their hearts' con- 
tent, and salt the remainder for future stores. 

At length clear, frosty weather came: the snow 
ceased to drift, and its surface froze. It would bear 
the camels, and the flight was resumed. But al- 
ready seventy thousand persons of all ages had per- 
ished, in addition to those slain in battle, and new 
suffering and death impended, for word came that 
the troops of the empire were converging from all 
parts of Central Asia upon the fords of the Toorgai, 
as the best place to cut off the flight of the tribes, 
while a powerful army was marching rapidly upon 
their rear, though delayed by its artillery. 

On the 2d of February Ouchim, the much-desired 
defile, was reached. The Cossacks had been out- 
marched. A considerable body of them, it is true, 
had reached the pass some hours before, but they 
were attacked and so fiercely dealt with that few 



THE FLIGHT OF THE KALMUCKS. 209 

of them escaped. The Kalmucks here obtained re- 
venge for the slaughter of their fellows twenty days 
before. 

The road was now open. How long it would con- 
tinue open was in doubt. Word came that a large 
Russian army, led by General Traubenberg, was 
advancing upon the Toorgai. He was to be met on 
his route by ten thousand Bashkirs and as many 
Kirghises, implacable enemies of the Kalmucks, from 
whom they had suffered in past years. The only 
hope now lay in speed, and onward the Kalmucks 
pressed, their line of march marked by the bodies of 
the dead. The weak, the sick, had to be left behind ; 
nothing was suffered to impede the rapidity of their 
flight. 

From the starting-point on the Yolga to the halt- 
ing-ground on the Toorgai, counting the circuits that 
had to be made, was full two thousand miles, much 
of it traversed in the dead of winter, the cold, for 
seven weeks of the journey, being excessively severe. 
Napoleon's army in its retreat from Moscow suffered 
no more from the winter chill than did this migra- 
ting nation. On many a morning the dawning light 
shone on a circle that had gathered the night before 
around a sparse fire (made from the lading of the 
camels or from broken-up baggage-wagons), now 
dead and frozen stiff as they sat. 

But at length the snows ceased to fall, the frost to 
chill. Spring came. March and April passed away. 
May arrived with its balmy airs. Vernal sights and 
sounds cheered them on every side. During all these 
months they continued their march, and towards 

14 



210 HISTORICAL TALES. 

the end of May the Toorgai wasreached and crossed, 
and the weary wanderers, having left their enemies 
far in the rear, hoped to find comfort and security 
during weeks of rest, and to complete their journey 
with less of ruin and suffering. They little dreamed 
that the worst of their task had yet to be endured. 

During the five months of their wanderings their 
losses had been frightfully severe. Not less than 
two hundred and fifty thousand members of the 
horde had perished, while their herds and flocks — 
oxen, cows, sheep, goats, horses, mules, and asses — 
had perished, only the camels surviving. These 
hardy creatures had come through the terrible jour- 
ney unharmed, and on them rested all their hopes 
for the remainder of their flight. 

But another two thousand miles lay before them, 
with hostility in front and in rear. Should they still 
go on, or should they return and throw themselves 
on the mercy of the empress ? Oubacha, the khan, 
advised return, offering to take all the guilt of the 
flight upon himself Zebek-Dorchi earnestly urged 
them to proceed, and not lose the fruit of all their 
suffering. But the people, worn out with the hard- 
ships and perils of their route, favored a return and 
a trust in the imperial mercy, and this would prob- 
ably have been determined upon but for an untoward 
event. 

This was the arrival of two envoys from Trauben- 
berg, the Eussian general, who, after a long and 
painful march, had approached within a few days' 
journey of the fugitives about the 1st of June. On 
his way he had been joined by large bodies of the 



THE FLIGHT OF THE KALMUCKS. 211 

Kirghis and Bashkir nomads. The harsh tone and 
peremptory demands of the envoys aroused hostile 
feelings among the Kalmuck chiefs. But the main 
check to negotiations was the action of the Bashkirs, 
who, finding that Traubenberg would not advance, 
left his camp in a body and set off for the Kalmuck 
halting-place. 

In six days they reached the Toorgai, swam their 
horses across it, and fell in fury upon the Kalmucks, 
who were dispersed over leagues of ground in search 
of pasture and food. Peace at once changed to 
war. Over a field from thirty to forty miles wide, 
fighting, flight and pursuit, rescue and death, went 
on at all points. More than once were the khan and 
Zebek-Dorchi in peril of death. At one time both 
were made prisoners. But at length, concentrating 
their strength, they forced the Bashkirs to retreat. 
For two days more the wild Bashkir and Kirghis 
cavalry continued their attacks, and the Kalmuck 
chiefs, looking upon these as the advance parties of 
the Eussian army, felt themselves obliged to order a 
renewal of the flight. Thus suddenly ended their 
hoped-for season of repose. 

One event took place during this period of which 
it is important to speak. A Eussian gentleman, 
Weseloff by name, was held prisoner in the Kalmuck 
camp, and had been brought that far on their route. 
The khan Oubacha, who saw no object in holding 
him, now gave him leave to attempt his escape, and 
also asked him to accompany him during a private 
interview which he was to hold on the next night 
with the hetman of the Bashkirs. Weseloff de- 



212 HISTORICAL TALES. 

clined to do so, and bade the khan to beware, as he 
feared the scheme meant treachery. 

About ten that night Weseloff, with three Kal- 
mucks who had offered to join in his flight, they 
having strong reasons for a return to Eussia, sought 
a number of the half- wild horses of that district 
which they had caught and hidden in the thickets 
on the river's side. They were in the act of mount- 
ing, when the silence of the night was broken by a 
sudden clash of arms, and a voice, which sounded 
like that of the khan, was heard calling for aid. 

The Russian, remembering what Oubacha had told 
him, rode off hastily towards the sound, bidding his 
companions follow. Reaching an open glade in the 
wood, he saw four men fighting with nine or ten, 
one, who looked like the khan, contending on foot 
against two horsemen. Weseloff fired at once, bring- 
ing down one of the assailants. His companions 
followed with their fire, and then all rode into the 
glade, whereupon the assailants, thinking that a 
troop of cavalry was upon them, hastily fled. The 
dead man, when examined, proved to be a confi- 
dential servant of Zebek-Dorchi. The secret was 
out; this ambitious conspirator had sought the 
murder of the khan. 

Accompanying the khan until he had reached a 
place of safety, Weseloff and his companions, at the 
suggestion of the grateful Oubacha, rode off at the 
utmost speed, fearing pursuit. Their return was 
made along the route the Kalmucks had traversed, 
every step of which could be traced by skeletons and 
other memorials of the flight. Among these were 



THE FLIGHT OP THE KALMUCKS. 213 

heaps of money which had been abandoned in the 
desert, and of which they took as much as they 
could conveniently carry. Weseloff at length reached 
home, rushed precipitately into the house where his 
loving mother had long mourned his loss, and so 
shocked her by the sudden revulsion of joy after 
her long sorrow that she fell dead on the spot. It 
was a sad ending to his happy return. 

To return to the Kalmuck flight. Two thousand 
miles still remained to be traversed before the bor- 
ders of China would be reached. All that took place 
in the dreary interval is too much to tell. It must 
suffice to say that the Bashkirs pursued them through 
the whole long route, while the choice of two evils 
lay in front. Now they made .their way through 
desert regions. I^ow, pressed by want of food, they 
traversed rich and inhabited lands, through which 
they had to win a passage with the sword. Every 
day the Bashkirs attacked them, drawing off into 
the desert when too sharply resisted. Thus, with 
endless alternations of hunger and bloodshed, the 
borders of China at length were approached. 

And now we have another scene in this remark- 
able drama to describe. Keen Lung, the emperor 
of China, had been long apprised of the flight of the 
Kalmucks, and had prepared a place of residence for 
these erring children of his nation, as he considered 
them, on their return to their native land. But he 
did not expect their arrival until the approach of 
winter, having been advised that they proposed to 
dwell during the summer heats on the Toorgai's fer- 
tile banks. 



214 HISTORICAL TALES. 

One fine morning in September, 1771, this fatherly 
monarch was enjoying himself in hunting in a wild 
district north of the Great Wall. Here, for hundreds 
of square leagues, the country was overgrown with 
forest, filled with game. Centrally in this district 
rose a gorgeous hunting-lodge, to which the emperor 
retired annually for a season of escape from the 
cares of government. Leaving his lodge, he had 
pursued the game through some two hundred miles 
of forest, every night pitching his tent in a different 
locality. A military escort followed at no great dis- 
tance in the rear. 

On the morning in question the emperor found 
himself on the margin of the vast deserts of Asia, 
which stretched interminably away. As he stood in 
his tent door, gazing across the extended plain, he saw 
with surprise, far to the west, a vast dun cloud arise, 
which mounted and spread until it covered that whole 
quarter of the sky. It thicken ed as it rose, and began 
to roll in billowy volumes towards his camp. 

This singular phenomenon aroused general atten- 
tion. The suite of the emperor hastened to behold 
it. In the rear the silver trumpets sounded, and 
from the forest avenues rode the imperial cavalry 
escort. All eyes were fixed upon the rolling cloud, 
the sentiment of curiosity being gradually replaced 
by a dread of possible danger. At first the dust- 
cloud was imagined to be due to a vast troop of 
deer or other wild animals, driven into the plain by 
the hunting train or by beasts of prey. This con- 
ception vanished as it came nearer, until, seemingly, 
it was but a few miles away. 



THE FLIGHT OP THE KALMUCKS. 215 

And now, as the breeze freshened a little, the 
vapory curtain rolled and eddied, until it assumed 
the appearance of vast aerial draperies depending 
from the heavens to the earth ; sometimes, where 
rent by the eddying breeze, it resembled portals and 
archways, through which, at intervals, were seen 
the gleam of weapons and the dim forms of camels 
and human beings. At times, again, the cloud thick- 
ened, shutting all from view ; but through it broke 
the din of battle, the shouts of combatants, the roar 
of infuriated hordes in mortal conflict. 

It was, in fact, the Kalmuck host, now in the last 
stage of misery and exhaustion, yet still pursued by 
their unrelenting foes. Of the six hundred thousand 
who had begun the journey scarcely a third remained, 
cold, heat, famine, and warfare having swept away 
nearly half a million of the fleeing host, while of 
their myriad animals only the camels and the horses 
brought from the Toorgaii remained. For the past 
ten days their suffering had reached a climax. They 
had been traversing a frightful desert, destitute alike 
of water and of vegetation. Two days before their 
small allowance of water had failed, and to the 
fatigue of flight had been added the horrors of 
insupportable thirst. 

On came the flying and fighting mass. It was 
soon evident that it was not moving towards the 
imperial train, and those who knew the country 
judged that it was speeding towards a large fresh- 
water lake about seven or eight miles away. Thither 
the imperial cavalry, of which a strong body, at- 
tended with artillery, lay some miles in the rear, was 



216 HISTORICAL TALES. 

ordered in all haste to ride ; and there, at noon of 
September 8, the great migration of the Kalmucks 
came to an end, amid the most ferocious and blood- 
thirsty scene of its whole frightful course. 

The lake of Tengis lies in a hollow among low 
mountains, on the verge of the great desert of Gobi. 
The Chinese cavalry reached the summit of a road 
that led down to the lake at about eleven o'clock. 
The descent was a winding and difficult one, and took 
them an hour and a half, during the whole of which 
they were spectators of an extraordinary scene below, 
the last and most fiendish spectacle in eight months 
of almost constant warfare. 

The sight of the distant hills and forests on that 
morning, and the announcement of the guides that 
the lake of Tengis was near at hand, had excited the 
suffering host into a state of frenzy, and a wild rush 
was made for the water, in which all discipline was 
lost, and the heat of the day and the exhaustion of 
the people were ignored. The rear-guard joined in 
the mad flight. In among the people rode the savage 
Bashkirs, suffering as much as themselves, yet still 
eager for blood, and slaughtering them by wholesale, 
almost without resistance. Screams and shouts filled 
the air, but none heeded or halted, all rushing madly 
on, spurred forward by the intolerable agonies of 
thirst. 

At length the lake was reached. Into its waters 
dashed the whole suffering mass, forgetful of every- 
thing but the wild instinct to quench their thirst. 
But hardly had the water moistened their lips when 
the carnival of bloodshed was resumed, and the waters 



THE FLIGHT OF THE KALMUCKS. 217 

became crimsoned with gore. The savage Bashkirs 
rode fiercely through the host, striking off heads 
with unappeased fury. The mortal foes joined in a 
death-grapple in the waters, often sinking together 
beneath the ruffled surface. Even the camels were 
made to take part in the fight, striking down the 
foe with their lashing forelegs. The waters grew 
more and more polluted ; but new myriads came up 
momentarily and plunged in, heedless of everything 
but thirst. Such a spectacle of revengeful passion, 
ghastly fear, the frenzy of hatred, mortal conflict, 
convulsion and despair as fell on the eyes of the 
approaching horsemen has rarely been seen, and 
that quiet mountain lake, which perhaps had never 
before vibrated with the sounds of battle, was on 
that fatal day converted into an encrimsoned sea of 
blood. 

At length the Bashkirs, alarmed by the near ap- 
proach of the Chinese cavalry, began to draw off and 
gather into groups, in preparation to meet the onset 
of a new foe. As they did so, the commandant of a 
small Chinese fort, built on an eminence above the 
lake, poured an artillery fire into their midst. Each 
group was thus dispersed as rapidly as it formed, 
the Chinese cavalry reached the foot of the hills and 
joined in the attack, and soon a new scene of war 
and bloodshed was in full process of enactment. 

But the savage horsemen, convinced that the con- 
test was growing hopeless, now began to retire, and 
were quickly in full flight into the desert, pursued as 
far as it was deemed wise. No pursuit was needed, 
even to satisfy the Kalmuck spirit of revenge. The 



218 HISTORICAL TALES. 

fact that their enemies had again to cross that in- 
hospitable desert, with its horrors of hunger and 
thirst, was as full of retribution as the most vindic- 
tive could have asked. 

Here ends our tale. The exhausted Kalmucks 
were abundantly provided for by their new lord and 
master, who supplied them with the food necessary, 
established them in a fertile region of his empire, 
furnished them with clothing, tools, a year's sub- 
sistence, grain for their fields, animals for their 
pastures, and money to aid them in their other 
needs, displaying towards his new subjects the most 
kindly and munificent generosity. They were placed 
under better conditions than they had enjoyed in 
Eussia, though changed from a pastoral and nomadic 
people to an agricultural one. 

As for Zebek-Dorchi, his attempt on the life of the 
khan had produced a feud between the two, which 
grew until it attracted the attention of the emperor. 
Inquiring into the circumstances of the enmity, he 
espoused the cause of Oubacha, which so infuriated 
the foe of the khan that he wove nets of conspiracy 
even against the emperor himself. In the end Zebek- 
Dorchi, with his accomplices, was invited to the im- 
perial lodge, and there, at a great banquet, his arts 
and plots were exposed, and he and all his followers 
were assassinated at the feast. 

As a durable monument to the mighty exodus of 
the Kalmucks, the most remarkable circumstance of 
the kind in the whole history of nations, the emperor 
Keen Lung ordered to be erected on the banks of the 
Ily, at the margin of the steppes, a great monument 



THE FLIGHT OF THE KALMUCKS. 219 

of granite and brass, bearing an inscription to the 
following effect : 

By the Will of God, 

Here, upon the brink of these Deserts, 

"Which from this Point begin and stretch away. 

Pathless, treeless, waterless, 

JFor thousands of miles, and along the margins of many mighty 

Nations, 

Kested from their labors and from great afflictions 

Under the shadow of the Chinese Wall, 

And by the favor of Keen Lung, God's Lieutenant upon 

Earth, 

The Ancient Children of the Wilderness, the Torgote Tartars, 

Flying before the wrath of the Grecian Czar, 

Wandering sheep who had strayed away from the Celestial 

Empire in the year 1616, 

But are now mercifully gathered again, after infinite sorrow. 

Into the fold of their forgiving Shepherd. 

Hallowed be the spot forever, 

and 

Hallowed be the day, — September 8, 1771. 

Amen. 



A MAGICAL TRANSFORMATION 
SCENE. 

Catharine the Great earned her title cheaply, 
her patent of greatness being due to the fact that 
she had the judgment to select great generals and 
a great minister and the wisdom to cling to them. 
Eussia grew powerful during her reign, largely 
through the able work of her generals, and she for- 
gave Potemkin a thousand insults and unblushing 
robberies in view of his successful statesmanship. 
Potemkin possessed, in addition to his ability as a 
statesman, the faculty of a spectacular artist, and 
arranged a show for the empress which stands un- 
rivalled amid the triumphs of the stage. It is the 
tale of this spectacle which we propose to tell. 

Catharine had literary aspirations, one of her 
admirations being Yoltaire, with whom she corre- 
sponded, and on whom she depended to chronicle 
the glory of her reign. The poet had his dreams, 
in which the woman shared, and between them they 
contrived a scheme of a modern Utopia, a Eusso- 
Grecian city of whose civilization the empress was 
to be the source, and which a decree was to raise 
from the desert and an idea make great. This fancy 
Potemkin, who stood ready to flatter the empress at 
any price, undertook to realize, and he built her a 
city in the fashion in which cities were built in the 
220 



A MAGICAL TRANSFORMATION SCENE. 221 

times of the Arabian ISTights, and made it flourish 
in the same unsubstantial fashion. The magnificent 
Potemkin never hesitated before any question of cost. 
Eussia was rich, and could bleed freely to please the 
empress's whim. He therefore ordered a city to be 
built, with dwellings and edifices of every description 
common to the cities of that date, — stores, palaces, 
public halls, private residences in profusion. The 
buildings ready, he sought for citizens, and forcibly 
drove the people from all quarters to take up a tem- 
porary residence within its walls. It was his one 
purpose to make a spectacle of this theatrical city 
to enchant the eyes of the empress. So that it had 
an appearance of prosperity during her visit, he cared 
not a fig if it fell to pieces and its inhabitants van- 
ished as soon as his supporting hand was removed. 
He only required that the scenes should be set and 
the actors in place when the curtain rose. 

And the city grew, on the banks of the Dnieper, 
eighteen million rubles being granted by the empress 
for its cost, — though much of this clung to the bird- 
lime of avarice on Potemkin's fingers. It was named 
Kherson. The desert around it was erected into a 
province, entitled by the wily minister Catharine's 
Glory (Slava Ekatarina). Another province, farther 
north, he named after his imperial mistress Ekata- 
rinoslaf. And thus, by fraud and violence, a city to 
order was brought into existence. The stage was 
ready. The next thing to be done was to raise the 
curtain which hid it from Catharine's eyes. 

It was early in the year 1787 that the empress be- 
gan her journey towards her Utopian city, to receive 



222 HISTORICAL TALES. 

the homage of its citizens and to exhibit to the world 
the magnificence of her reign. Great projects were 
in the air. Poland had just been cut into fragments 
and distributed among the hungry kingdoms around. 
The same was to be done with Turkey. Joseph II. 
of Austria was to meet the empress in Kherson to 
consult upon this partition of the Turkish empire ; 
while Constantine, grand duke of Eussia and grand- 
son of the empress, was to reign at Byzantium, or 
Constantinople, over the new empire carved from the 
Turkish realm. Such was the paper programme pre- 
pared by Potemkin and the empress, the minister 
doubtless smiling behind his sleeve, his mistress in 
solid earnest. 

And now we have the story to tell of one of the 
most marvellous journeys ever undertaken. It was 
made through a thinly inhabited wilderness, which 
to the belief of the empress was to be converted into 
a populous and thriving realm. That the journey 
might proceed by night as well as by day, great piles 
of wood were prepared at intervals of fifty perches, 
whose leaping flames gave to the high-road a bright- 
ness like that of day. In six days Smolensk was 
reached, and in twenty days the old Eussian capital 
of Kief, where the procession halted for a season 
before proceeding towards its goal. 

As it went on, the whole country became trans- 
formed. The deserts were suddenly peopled, pal- 
aces awaited the train in the trackless wild, tem- 
porary villages hid the nakedness of the plain, and 
fireworks at night testified to the seeming joy of 
the populace. Wide roads were opened by the army 



A MAGICAL TRANSFORMATION SCENE. 223 

in advance of the cortege, the mountains were illu- 
minated as it passed, howling wildernesses were made 
to appear like fertile gardens, and great flocks and 
herds, gathered from distant pastures, delighted the 
eyes of the empress with the appearance of thrift 
and prosperity as her vehicle drove rapidly along 
the roads. To the charmed eyes of those not " to the 
manner born" the whole country seemed populous 
and prosperous, the people joyous, the soil fertile, 
the land smiling with abundance. There was no 
hint to indicate that it was a desert covered for the 
time being by an enamelled carpet. 

The Dnieper reached, the empress and her train 
passed down that river in fifteen splendid galleys, 
with the pomp of a triumphal procession. It was 
now the month of May, and the banks of the river 
showed the same signs of prosperity as had the sides 
of the road. At Kaidack the emperor Joseph met 
the empress, having reached Kherson in advance and 
gone north to anticipate her coming. He accom- 
panied her down the stream, looking with her on 
the show of prosperity and populousness which de- 
lighted her inexperienced eyes, and smiling covertly 
at the delusion which Potemkin's magic had raised, 
well assured that as soon as she had passed silence 
and desertion would succeed these busy scenes. At a 
new projected town on the way, of which Catharine 
had, with much ceremony, laid the first stone, Joseph 
was asked to lay the second. He did so, afterwards 
saying of the farcical proceeding, " The Empress of 
Eussia and I have finished a very important business 
in a single day : she has laid the first stone of a city, 



224 HISTORICAL TALES. 

and I have laid the last." He had no doubt that, 
when they had gone, the buildings in which they had 
slept, the villages which they had seen, the wayside 
herders and flocks, would vanish like theatrical 
scenery, and the country present the dismal aspect 
of a deserted stage. 

At length the new city was reached, the magical 
Kherson. Catharine entered it in grand state, under 
a noble triumphal arch inscribed in Greek with the 
words "The Way to Byzantium." It was a busy 
city in which she found herself. The houses were 
all inhabited ; shops, filled with goods, lined the prin- 
cipal streets ; people thronged the sidewalks, spec- 
tators of the entry ; luxury of every kind awaited 
the empress in the capital which had arisen for her 
as by the rubbing of Aladdin's ring, and entertain- 
ments of the most lavish character were prepared 
by the potent genius to whom all she saw was due. 
Potemkin hesitated at no expense. The journey had 
cost the empire no less than seven millions of rubles, 
fourteen thousand of which were expended on the 
throne built for the empress in what was named the 
admiralty of Kherson. 

Such was the scenery prepared for one of the 
most theatrical events the world has ever witnessed. 
It cost the empire dearly, but Potemkin's purpose 
was achieved. He had charmed the empress by 
causing the desert to " blossom like the rose," and 
after the spectators had passed all sank again into 
silence and emptiness. The new empire of Byzan- 
tium remained a dream. Turkey had not been con- 
sulted in the project, and was not quite ready to 



A MAGICAL TRANSFORMATION SCENE. 225 

consent to be dismembered to gratify the whim of 
empress and emperor. 

As for the city of Kherson, its site was badly 
chosen, and its seeming prosperity and populousness 
during the empress's presence quickly passed away. 
The city has remained, but its actual growth has 
been gradual, and it has been thrown into the shade 
by Odessa, a port founded some years later without 
a single flourish of trumpets, but which has now 
grown to be the fourth city of Eussia in size and 
importance. Of late years Kherson has shown some 
signs of increase, but all we need say further of it 
here is that it has the honor of being the burial- 
place of the shrewd Potemkin, under whose foster- 
ing hand it burst into such premature bloom in its 
early days. 



15 



KOSCIUSKO AND THE FALL OF 
POLAND. 

Of the several nations that made up the Europe 
of the eighteenth century, one, the kingdom of Po- 
land, vanished before the nineteenth century began. 
Destitute of a strong central government, the scene 
of continual anarchy among the turbulent nobles, 
possessing no national frontiers and no national 
middle class, its population being made up of nobles, 
serfs, and foreigners, it lay at the mercy of the am- 
bitious surrounding kingdoms, by which it was finally 
absorbed. On three successive occasions was the ter- 
ritory of the feeble nation divided between its foes, 
the first partition being made in 1772, between Eussia, 
Prussia, and Austria ; the second in 1793, between 
Russia and Prussia ; and the third and final in 1795, 
in which Russia, Prussia, and Austria again took 
part, all that remained of the country being now dis- 
tributed and the ancient kingdom of Poland effaced 
from the map of Europe. 

Only one vigorous attempt was made to save the 
imperilled realm, that of the illustrious Kosciusko, 
who, though he failed in his patriotic purpose, made 
his name famous as the noblest of the Poles. When 
he appeared at the head of its armies, Poland was 
in a desperate strait. Some of its own nobles had 
been bought by Russian gold, Russian armies had 
226 



KOSCIUSKO AND THE FALL OF POLAND. 227 

overrun the land, and a Prussian force was marching 
to their aid. At Grodno the Eussian general proudly 
took his seat on that throne which he was striving 
to overthrow. The defenders of Poland had been 
dispersed, their property confiscated, their families 
reduced to poverty. The Eussians. swarming through 
the kingdom, committed the greatest excesses, while 
Warsaw, which had fallen into their hands, was gov- 
erned with arrogant barbarity. Such was the state 
of affairs when some of the most patriotic of the 
nobles assembled and sent to Kosciusko, asking him 
to put himself at their head. 

As a young man this valiant Pole had aided in the 
war for American independence. In 1792 he took 
part in the war i'or the defence of his native land. 
i3ut he declared that there could be no hope of suc- 
cess unless the peasants were given their liberty. 
Hitherto they had been treated in Poland like slaves. 
It was with these despised serfs that this effort was 
made. 

In 1794 the insurrection broke out. Kosciusko, 
finding that the country was ripe for revolt against 
its oppressors, hastened from Italy, whither he had 
retired, and appeared at Cracow, where he was hailed 
as the coming deliverer of the land. The only troops 
in arms were a small force of about four thousand in 
all, who were joined by about three hundred peas- 
ants armed with scythes. These were soon met by 
an army of seven thousand Eussians, whom they 
put to flight after a sharp engagement. 

The news of this battle stirred the Eussian gen- 
eral in command at Warsaw to active measures. 



228 HISTORICAL TALES. 

All whom he suspected of favoring the insurrection 
were arrested. The result was different from what 
he had expected. The city blazed into insurrection, 
two thousand Eussians fell before the onslaught of 
the incensed patriots, and their general saved himself 
only by flight. 

The outbreak at Warsaw was followed by one at 
Yilna, the capital of Lithuania, the Eussians here 
being all taken prisoners. Three Polish regiments 
mustered into the Eussian service deserted to the 
army of their compatriots, and far and wide over the 
country the flames of insurrection spread. 

Kosciusko rapidly increased his forces by recruit- 
ing the peasantry, whose dress he wore and whose 
food he shared in. But these men distrusted the 
nobles, who had so long oppressed them, while many 
of the latter, eager to retain their valued preroga- 
tives, worked against the patriot cause, in which 
they were aided by King Stanislaus, who had been 
subsidized by Eussian gold. 

To put down this effort of despair on the part of 
the Poles, Catharine of Eussia sent fresh armies to 
Poland, led by her ablest generals. Prussians and 
Austrians also joined in the movement for enslave- 
ment, Frederick William of Prussia fighting at the 
head of his troops against the Polish patriot. Kos- 
ciusko had established a provisional government, and 
faced his foes boldly in the field. Defeated, he fell 
back on Warsaw, where he valiantly maintained him- 
self until threatened by two new Eussian armies, 
whom he marched out to meet, in the hope of pre- 
venting their junction. 



KOSCIUSKO AND THE PALL OF POLAND. 229 

The decisive battle took place at Maciejowice, in 
October, 1794. Kosciusko, though pressed by supe- 
rior forces, fought with the greatest valor and des- 
peration. His men at length, overpowered by num- 
bers, were in great part cut to pieces or obliged to 
yield, while their leader, covered with wounds, fell 
into the hands of his foes. It is said that he ex- 
claimed, on seeing all hopes at an end, " Finis Po- 
lonise !" In the words of the poet Byron, '• Freedom 
shrieked when Kosciusko fell." 

Warsaw still held out. Here all who had escaped 
from the field took refuge, occupying Praga, the 
eastern suburb of the city, where twenty-six thou- 
sand Poles, with over one hundred cannon and mor- 
tars, defended the bridges over the Vistula. Suwar- 
row, the greatest of the Eussian generals, was quickly 
at the city gates. He was weaker, both in men and 
in guns, than the defenders of the city ; but with his 
wonted impetuosity he resolved to employ the same 
tactics which he had more than once used against 
the Turks, and seek to carry the Polish lines at the 
bayonet's point. 

After a two days' cannonade, he ordered the as- 
sault at daybreak of November 4. A desperate con- 
flict continued during the five succeeding hours, end- 
ing in the carrying of the trenches and the defeat 
of the garrison. The Eussians now poured into the 
suburb, where a scene of frightful carnage began. 
Not only men in arms, but old men, women, and 
children were ruthlessly slaughtered, the wooden 
houses set on fire, the bridges broken down, and the 
throng of helpless people who sought to escape into 



230 HISTORICAL TALES. 

the city driven ruthlessly into the waters of the 
Yistula. In this butchery not only ten thousand sol- 
diers, but twelve thousand citizens of every age and 
sex were remorselessly slain. 

On the following day the city capitulated, and on 
the 6th the Eussian victors marched into its streets. 
It was, as Kosciusko had said, " the end of Poland." 
The troops were disarmed, the officers were seized as 
prisoners, and the feeble king was nominally raised 
again to the head of the kingdom, so soon to be 
swept from existence. For a year Suwarrow held 
a military court in Warsaw, far eclipsing the king 
in the splendor of his surroundings. By the close 
of 1795 all was at an end. The small remnant left 
of the kingdom was parted between the greedy 
aspirants, and on the 1st of January, 1796, Warsaw 
was handed over to Prussia, to whose share of the 
spoils it appertained. 

In this arbitrary manner was a kingdom which 
had an area of nearly three hundred thousand square 
miles and a population of twelve millions, and whose 
history dated back to the tenth century, removed 
from the map of the world, while the heavy hand 
of oppression fell upon all who dared to speak or act 
in its behalf One bold stroke for freedom was after- 
wards made, but it ended as before, and Poland is 
now but a name. 



SUWARROW THE UNCONQUER- 
ABLE. 

Of men born for battle, to whose ears the roar 
of cannon and the clash of sabres are the only- 
music, the smoke of conflict their native atmosphere, 
Suwarrow (Suvarof, to give him his Eussian name) 
stands among the foremost. A little, wrinkled, 
stooping man, five feet four inches in height and 
sickly in appearance, he was the last to whom one 
would have looked for great deeds in war or mighty 
exploits in the embattled field. Yet he had the soul 
of a hero in his diminutive frame, and even as a boy 
the passion for military glory fired his heart, Caesar 
and Charles XII. of Sweden (from which country 
his ancestors came) being the heroes worshipped by 
his youthful imagination. Born in 1729, he entered 
the army as a private at seventeen, but rapidly rose 
from the ranks, made himself famous in the Seven 
Years' War and in the Polish war of 1768-71, and 
from that time until death put an end to his career 
was almost constantly in the field. Il^apoleon, against 
whose armies he fought in his later days, was not 
more enraptured with the breath of battle than was 
this war-dog of the Eussian army. 

Diminutive and sickly as he looked, Suwarrow 
was strong and hardy, and so inured to hardship 

231 



232 ' HISTORICAL TALES. 

that the severity of the Eussian climate failed to 
affect his vigorous frame. Disdaining luxury, and 
ignoring comfort, he lived like the soldiers under 
his command, preferring to sleep on a truss of 
hay, and accepting every privation which his men 
might be called on to endure. Though he was a 
man of high intelligence, a clever linguist, and a dili- 
gent reader even when on campaign, yet he flattered 
the superstitions of the soldiers, and was ready to 
kneel and pray before every wayside image, even 
when the roads were deep with mud. 

In his ordinary manners he carried eccentricity 
to an extravagant extent, was brusque and curt in 
speech, often to the verge of insult, laconic in his 
despatches, and — a soldier in grain — treated with 
stinging sarcasm all whose lack of. activity or of 
courage invited his contempt. It was by this spirit 
that he incurred the enmity of the Emperor Paul, 
when, in his half-mad thirst for change, the latter 
attempted to change the native dress of the Eussian 
soldier for the ancient attire of Germany. His fair 
locks, which the Eussian was used to wash every 
morning, he was now bidden to bedaub with grease 
and flour, while he energetically cursed the black 
spatterdashes which it took him an hour to button 
every morning. Orders to establish these novelties 
among his men were sent to Suwarrow, then in Italy 
with the army, the directions being accompanied 
with little sticks for models of the tails and side 
curls in which the soldiers' hair was to be arranged. 
The old warrior's lips curled contemptuously on 
seeing these absurd devices, and he growled out in 



SUWARROW THE UNCONQUERABLE. 233 

his curt fashion, " Hair-powder is not gunpowder ; 
curls are not cannon ; and tails are not bayonets." 

This sarcastic utterance, which forms a sort of 
rhyming verse in the Eussian tongue, got abroad, and 
spread from mouth to mouth through the army like 
a choice morsel of wit. The czar, to whose ears it 
came, heard it with deep offence. Soon after Suwar- 
row was recalled from the army, on another plea, 
and on his return to St. Petersburg was not per- 
mitted to see the emperor's face. This injustice 
may have been a cause of his death, which occurred 
shortly after his return, on May 18, 1800. Ko cour- 
tier of the Eussian court, and no diplomatist, except 
the English ambassador, followed the war-worn vet- 
eran to the grave. 

Suwarrow was the idol of his men, whose favorite 
title for him was " Father Suvarof," and who were 
ready at command to follow him to the cannon's 
mouth. In all his long career he never lost a battle, 
and only once in his life of war acted on the defen- 
sive. With a superb faith in his own star, the in- 
spiration of the moment served him for counsel, and 
rapidity of movement and boldness and dash in the 
onset brought him many a victory where delibera- 
tion might have led to defeat. 

A striking instance of this, and of his usual brusque 
eccentricity, took place in 1799 in Italy, where Su- 
warrow was placed in command of all the allied 
troops. This raising of a Eussian to the supreme 
command excited the jealousy of the Austrian gen- 
erals, and they called a council of war to examine 
his plans for the campaign. The members of the 



234 HISTORICAL TALES. 

council, the youngest first, gave their views as to 
the conduct of the war. Suwarrow listened in grim 
silence until they had all spoken, and had turned to 
him for his comment on their views. The wrinkled 
veteran drew to himself a slate, and made on it two 
lines. 

" Here, gentlemen," he said, pointing to one line, 
''are the French, and here are the Eussians. The 
latter will march against the former and beat them." 
This said, he rubbed out the French line. Then, 
looking up at his surprised auditors, he curtly re- 
marked, " This is all ray plan. The council is ended." 

In war he is said to have been averse to the shed- 
ding of blood, and to have been at heart humane and 
merciful. Yet this hardly accords with the story of 
his exploits, it being said that twenty-six thousand 
Turks were killed in the storming of Ismail, while in 
that of Praga at Warsaw more than twenty thousand 
Poles were massacred. 

Such was the character of one of the men who 
aided to make glorious the reign of Catharine of 
Eussia, and whose merit she — unlike her weak son 
Paul— was fully competent to appreciate. With this 
estimate of the greatest soldier Eussia has ever pro- 
duced, and one of the ablest generals of modern times, 
we may briefly describe some of the most striking 
exploits of Suwarrow's career. 

In 1789, during one of the interminable wars 
against Turkey, in which on this occasion the Aus- 
trians took part with the Eussians, the Prince of 
Coburg was at the head of an Austrian force, which 
he was strikingly incapable of commanding. The 



SUWARROW THE UNCONQUERABLE. 235 

prince, advancing with sublime deliberation, found 
himself suddenly threatened by a considerable Turk- 
ish army. Filled with alarm at the sight of the en- 
emy, he sent a hasty appeal to Suwarrow to come to 
his aid. 

The Eussian general had just rejoined his army 
after recovering from a wound. The news of Co- 
burg's peril reached him at Belat, in Moldavia, be- 
tween forty and fifty miles away, and these miles 
of mountains, ravines, and almost impassable wilds. 
Suwarrow at once broke camp, and with his usual 
impetuosity led his army over its difficult route, 
reaching the Austrians in less than thirty-six hours 
after receiving the news. 

It was five o'clock in the evening when he arrived. 
At eleven he sent his plan of attack to the prince. 
An assault on the enemy was to be made at two in 
the morning. Coburg, who had never dreamed of 
such rapidity of movement and such impetuosity in 
action, was utterly astounded. In complete bewil- 
derment, he sought Suwarrow at his quarters, going 
there three times without finding him. The supreme 
command belonged to him as the older general, but 
he had the sense not to claim it, and to act as a sub- 
ordinate to his abler ally. In an hour after the ad- 
vance began the allied armies were in the Turkish 
camp, and the Turks, though much outnumbering 
their assailants, were in full flight. All their stores, 
a hundred standards, and seventy pieces of artillery 
fell into the hands of the victors. 

Suwarrow returned to Moldavia, and Coburg looked 
quietly on while the Turks collected a new army. 



236 HISTORICAL TALES. 

In less than two months he found himself confronted 
by a hundred thousand men. In new alarm, he 
hastily sent again to Suwarrow for aid. 

In two days the Eussian army had reached the 
Austrian camp, which the enemy was just about to 
attack. The Turks had neglected to fortify their 
camp before offering battle. Of this oversight the 
keen-eyed Russian took instant advantage, attacked 
them in their unfinished trenches, and, as before, 
took their camp by storm, — though after a more 
stubborn defence than in the previous instance. Tlie 
Turkish army was again dispersed, immense booty 
was taken, and Suwarrow received for his valor the 
title of a count of the Austrian empire, while the 
empress Catharine gave him in reward the honor- 
able surname of Eimniksky, from the name of the 
river on which the battle had been fought. 

The next great exploit of Suwarrow was per- 
formed at Ismail, a Turkish town which Potemkin 
had been besieging for seven months. The prime 
minister at length grew impatient at the delay, and 
determined on more effective measures. Living 
in a luxury in his camp that contrasted strangely 
with the sparse conditions of Suwarrow, Potemkin 
was surrounded by courtiers and ladies, who made 
strenuous efforts to furnish the great man with 
amusement. One of the ladies, handling a pack of 
cards, from which she laughingly pretended to be 
able to read the secrets of destiny, proclaimed that 
he would be in possession of the town at the end of 
three weeks. 

" You are not bad at prediction," said Potemkin, 



SUWARROW THE UNCONQUERABLE. 237 

with a smile, "but I have a method of divination 
far more infallible. My prediction is that I will 
have the town in three days." 

He at once sent orders to Suwarrow, who was at 
Galatz, to come and take the town. 

The obedient warrior, who seemed to be always 
at somebody's beck and call, quickly appeared and 
surveyed the situation. His first steps seemed to 
indicate that he proposed to continue the siege, the 
troops being formed into a besieging army of about 
forty thousand men, while the Eussian fleet was 
ordered up to the town. But the deliberation of a 
siege never accorded with Suwarrow's ardent humor. 
His real purpose was to take the place by storm. He 
had taken Otchakof in this way the previous year 
with heavy loss, and with the slaughter of twenty 
thousand Turks. He now, on the 21st of Septem- 
ber, twice summoned the city to surrender, threat- 
ening the people with the fate of Otchakof. They 
refused to yield, and the assault began at four o'clock 
of the following morning. 

Battalion after battalion was hurled against the 
walls : the slaughter from the Turkish fire was fright- 
ful, but the stern commander hurled ever new hosts 
into the pit of death, and about eight o'clock the 
summit of the walls was reached. But the work 
was yet only begun. The city was defended street 
by street, house by house. It was noon before the 
Eussians, fighting their way through a desperate re- 
sistance, reached the market-place, where were gath- 
ered a body of the Tartars of the Crimea. For two 
hours these fought fiercely for their lives, and after 



238 HISTORICAL TALES. 

they had all fallen the Turks kept up the conflict 
with equal desperation in the streets. At length the 
gates were thrown open and Suwarrow sent his cav- 
alry into the city, who charged through the streets, 
cutting down all whom they met. It was four o'clock 
in the afternoon when the butchery ended, after 
which the city was given up for three days to the 
mercy of the troops. According to the official re- 
port, the Turks lost forty-three thousand in killed 
and prisoners, the Eussians forty-five hundred in 
all ; the one estimate probably as much too large as 
the other was too small. 

We may conclude with the story of Suwarrow's 
career in Ital}^ and Switzerland against the armies 
of the French republic. The plan which the Eus- 
sian conqueror had marked out on the slate for 
the Austrian generals was literally fulfilled. In less 
than three months he had cleared Lombardy and 
Piedmont of the troops of France. He forced the 
passage of the Adda against Moreau and his army, 
compelling the French to abandon Milan, which he 
entered in triumph. His next success was at Turin, 
a depot of French supplies, towards which Moreau 
was hastily advancing. The Eussians took the city 
by surprise, driving the French garrison into the 
citadel, and capturing three hundred cannons and 
enormous quantities of muskets, ammunition, and 
military stores. The French army was saved from 
ruin only by the great ability of its commander, who 
led it to Genoa in four days over a mountain path. 

The czar Paul rewarded his victorious general 
with the honorable designation of Italienski, or the 



SUW ARROW THE UNCONQUERABLE. 239 

Italian, and, in his grandiloquent fashion, issued a 
ukase commanding all people to regard Suwarrow as 
the greatest commander the world had ever known. 

We cannot describe the whole course of events. 
Other victories were won in Italy, but finally Su- 
warrow was weakened by the jealousy of the Aus- 
trians, who withdrew their troops, and subsequently 
was obliged to go to the relief of his fellow-com- 
mander, Korsakof, who, with twenty thousand men, 
had imprudently allowed himself to be hemmed in 
by a French army at Zurich. He finally forced his 
way through the enemy, losing all his artillery and 
half his host. 

Of this Suwarrow knew nothing, as he made his 
way across the Alps to the aid of the beleaguered 
general. He attempted to force his way over the 
St. Gothard pass, meeting with fierce opposition at 
every point. There was a sharp fight at the Devil's 
Bridge, which the French blew up, but failed to 
keep back Suwarrow and his men, who crossed the 
rocky gorge of the Unerloch, dashed through the 
foaming Reuss, and drove the French from their 
post of vantage. 

At length, with his men barefoot, his provisions 
almost exhausted, the Russian general reached 
Muotta, to find to his chagrin that Korsakof had 
been defeated and put to flight. He at once began 
his retreat, followed in force by Massena, who was 
driven off by the rear-guard. On October 1 Su- 
warrow reached Glarus. Here he rested till the 4th, 
then crossed the Panixer Mountains through snow 
two feet deep to the valley of the Rhine, which he 



240 HISTORICAL TALES. 

readied on the 10th, having lost two hundred of his 
men and all his beasts of burden over the precipices. 
Thus ended this extraordinary march, which had cost 
Suwarrow all his artillery, nearly all his horses, and 
a third of his men. 

These losses in the Eussian armies stirred the czar 
to immeasurable rage. All the missing officers — who 
were prisoners in France — were branded as deserters, 
and Suwarrow was deprived of his command, osten- 
sibly for his failure, but largely for the sarcasm al- 
ready mentioned. He returned home to die, having 
experienced what a misfortune it is for a great man 
to be at the mercy of a fool in authority. 



THE RETREAT OF NAPOLEON'S 
GRAND ARMY, 

In the spring of 1812 Napoleon reached the 
frontiers of Eussia at the head of the greatest army 
that had ever been under his command, it embracing 
half a million of men. It was not an array of French- 
men, however, since much more than half the total 
force was made up of Germans and soldiers of other 
nationalities. In addition to the soldiery was a mul- 
titude of non-combatants and other incumbrances, 
which IS'apoleon, deviating from his usual custom, 
allowed to follow the troops. These were made up 
of useless aids to the pomp and luxury of the em- 
peror and his officers, and an incredible number of 
private vehicles, women, servants, and others, who 
served but to create confusion, and to consume the 
army stores, of which provision had been made for 
only a short campaign. 

Thus, dragging its slow length along, the army, 
on June 24, 1812, crossed the Niemen Eiver and en- 
tered upon Eussian soil. From emperor to private, 
all were inspired with exaggerated hopes of victory, 
and looked soon to see the mighty empire of the 
north prostrate before the genius of all-conquering 
France. Had the vision of that army, as it was to 
recross the Niemen within six months, risen upon 

16 241 



242 HISTORICAL TALES. 

their minds, it would have been dismissed as a night- 
mare of false and monstrous mien. 

Onward into Eussia wound the vast and hopeful 
mass, without a battle and without sight of a foe. 
The Eussians were retreating and drawing their foes 
deeper and deeper into the heart of their desolate 
land. Battles were not necessary ; the country itself 
fought for Eussia. Food was not to be had from the 
land, which was devastated in their track. Burning 
cities and villages lit up their path. The carriages 
and wagons, even many of the cannon, had to be 
left behind. The forced marches which Napoleon 
made in the hope of overtaking the Eussians forced 
him to abandon much of his supplies, while men and 
horses sank from fatigue and hunger. The decaying 
carcasses of ten thousand horses already poisoned 
the air. 

At length Moscow was approached. Here the 
Eussian leaders were forced by the sentiment of 
the army and the people to strike one blow in 
defence of their ancient capital. A desperate en- 
counter took place at Borodino, two days' march 
from the city, in which Napoleon triumphed, but at 
a fearful price. Forty thousand men had fallen, of 
whom the wounded nearly all died through want 
and neglect. When Moscow was reached, it proved 
to be deserted. Napoleon had won the empty shell 
of a city, and was as far as ever from the conquest 
of Eussia. 

It is not our purpose here to give the startling 
story of the burning of Moscow, the sacrifice of a 
city to the god of war. Though this is one of the 



THE RETREAT OP NAPOLEON' S GRAND ARMY. 243 

most thrilling events in the history of Eussia, it has 
already been told in this series.* We are concerned 
at present solely with the retreat of the grand army 
from the ashes of the Muscovite capital, the most 
dreadful retreat in the annals of war. 

J^apoleon lingered amid the ruins of the ancient 
city until winter was near at hand, hoping still that 
the emperor Alexander would sue for peace. No 
suit came. He offered terms himself, and they were 
not even honored with a reply. A deeply disap- 
pointed man, the autocrat of Europe marched out 
of Moscow on October 19 and began his frightful 
homeward march. He had waited much too long. 
The Eussian armies, largely increased in numbers, 
shut him out from every path but the wasted one 
by which he had come, a highway marked by the 
ashes of burnt towns and the decaying corpses of 
men and animals. 

On November 6, winter suddenly set in. The 
supplies had largely been consumed, the land was 
empty of food, famine alternated with cold to crush 
the retreating host, and death in frightful forms 
hovered over their path. The horses, half fed and 
worn out, died by thousands. Most of the cavalry 
had to go afoot; the booty brought from Moscow 
was abandoned as valueless ; even much of the artil- 
lery was left behind. The cold grew more intense. 
A deep snow covered the plain, through whose white 
peril they had to drag their weary feet. Arms were 
flung away as useless weights, flight was the only 

* See Historical Tales : France. 



244 HISTORICAL TALES. 

thought, and but a tithe of the army remained in 
condition to defend the rest. 

The retreat of the grand army became one of in- 
credible distress and suffering. Over the seemingly 
endless Eussian steppes, from whose snow-clad level 
only rose here and there the ruins of a deserted vil- 
lage, the freezing and starving soldiers made their 
miserable way. Wan, hollow-eyed, gaunt, clad in 
garments through which the biting cold pierced 
their flesh, they dragged wearily onward, fighting 
with one another for the flesh of a dead horse, ready 
to commit murder for the shadow of food, and finally 
sinking in death in the snows of that intermina- 
ble plain. Each morning, some of those who had 
stretched their limbs round the bivouac fires failed 
to rise. The victims of the night were often revealed 
only by the small mounds of fallen snow which had 
buried them as they slept. 

That this picture may not be thought overdrawn, 
we shall relate an anecdote told of Prince Emilius of 
Darmstadt. He had fallen asleep in the snow, and 
in order to protect him from the keen north wind 
four of his Hessian dragoons screened him during the 
night with their cloaks. The prince arose from his 
cold couch in the morning to find his faithful guar- 
dians still in the position they had occupied during 
the night, — frozen to death. 

Maddened with famine and frost, men were seen to 
spring, with wildly exulting cries, into the flames of 
burning houses. Of those that fell into the hands 
of the Eussian boors, many were stripped of their 
clothing and chased to death through the snow. 



THE RETREAT OF NAPOLEON'S GRAND ARMY. 245 

Smolensk, which the army had passed in its glory, 
it now reached in its gloom. The city was de- 
serted and half burned. Most of the cannon had 
been abandoned, food and ammunition were lacking, 
and no halt was possible. The despairing army 
pushed on. 

Death followed the fugitives in other forms than 
those of frost and hunger. The Eussians, who had 
avoided the army in its advance, harassed it contin- 
ually in its retreat. From all directions Eussian 
troops marched upon the worn-out fugitives, grimly 
determined that not a man of them should leave 
Eussia if they could prevent. The intrepid Ney, 
with the men still capable of fight, formed the rear- 
guard, and kept at bay their foes. This service was 
one of imminent peril. Cut off at Smolensk from 
the main body, only Ney's vigilance saved his men 
from destruction. During the night he led them 
rapidly along the banks of the Dnieper, repulsing 
the Eussian corps that sought to cut off his retreat, 
and joined the army again. 

The Beresina at length was reached. This river 
must be crossed. But the frightful chill, which 
hitherto had pursued the fleeing host, now inoppor- 
tunely decreased, a thaw broke the frozen surface of 
the stream, and the fugitives gazed with horror on 
masses of floating ice where they had dreamed of a 
solid pathway for their feet. The slippery state of 
the banks added to the difliculty, while on the oppo- 
site side a Eussian army commanded the passage 
with its artillery, and in the rear the roar of cannon 
signalled the approach of another army. All seemed 



246 HISTORICAL TALES. 

lost, and only the good fortune which had so often 
befriended him now saved Napoleon and his host. 

For at this critical moment a fresh army corps, 
which had been left behind in his advance, came to 
the emperor's aid, and the Russian general who dis- 
puted the passage, deceived by the French move- 
ments, withdrew to another point on the stream. 
Taking instant advantage of the opportunity, Napo- 
leon threw two bridges across the river, over which 
the able-bodied men of the army safely made their 
way. 

After them came the vast host of non-combatants 
that formed the rear, choking the bridges with their 
multitude. As they struggled to cross, the pursuing 
Eussian army appeared and opened with artillery 
upon the helpless mass, ploughing long red lanes of 
carnage through its midst. One bridge broke down, 
and all rushed to the other. Multitudes were forced 
into the stream, while the Eussian cannon played re- 
morselessly upon the struggling and drowning mass. 
For two days the passage had continued, and on the 
morning of the third a considerable number of sick 
and wounded soldiers, sutlers, women, and children 
still remained behind, when word reached them that 
the bridges were to be burned. A fearful rush now 
took place. Some succeeded in crossing, but the fire 
ran rapidly along the timbers, and the despairing 
multitude leaped into the icy river or sought to plunge 
through the mounting flames. When the ice thawed 
in the spring twelve thousand dead bodies were found 
on the shores of the stream. Sixteen thousand of 
the fugitives remained prisoners in Eussian hands. 



THE RETREAT OF NAPOLEON's GRAND ARMY. 247 

This day of disaster was the climax of the fright- 
ful retreat. But as the army pressed onward the 
temperature again fell, until it reached twenty-seven 
degrees below zero, and the old story of " frozen to 
death" was resumed. Napoleon, fearing to be taken 
prisoner in Germany if the truth should become 
known, left his army on December 5, and hurried 
towards Paris with all speed, leaving the news of the 
disaster behind in his flight. Wilna was soon after 
reached by the army, but could not be held by the 
exhausted troops, and, with its crowded magazines 
and the wealth in its treasury, fell into the hands of 
the Eussians. 

During this season of disaster the Austrian and 
Prussian commanders left behind to guard the route 
contrived to spare their troops. Schwarzenberg, 
the Austrian commander, retreated towards Warsaw 
and left the Eussian armies free to act against the 
French. The Prussians, who had been engaged in 
the siege of Eiga, might have covered the fleeing 
host; but York, their commander, entered into a 
truce with the Eussians and remained stationary. 
They had been forced to join the French, and took 
the first opportunity to abandon their hated allies. 

A place of safety was at length reached, but the 
grand army was represented by a miserable fragment 
of its mighty host. Of the half- million who crossed 
the Eussian frontier, but eighty thousand returned. 
Of those who had reached Moscow, the meagre rem- 
nant numbered scarcely twenty thousand in all. 



THE DEATH-STRUGGLE OF 
POLAND. 

The French revolution of 1830 precipitated a simi- 
lar one in Poland. The rule of Eussia in that country 
had been one of outrage and oppression. In the 
words of the Poles, "personal liberty, which had 
been solemnly guaranteed, was violated ; the prisons 
were crowded ; courts-martial were appointed to de- 
cide in civil cases, and imposed infamous punish- 
ments upon citizens whose only crime was that of 
having attempted to save from corruption the spirit 
and the character of the nation." 

On the 29th of November the people sprang to 
arms in Warsaw and the Eussians were driven out. 
Soon after a dictator was chosen, an army collected, 
and Eussian Poland everywhere rose in revolt. 

It was a hopeless struggle into which the Polish 
patriots had entered. In all Europe there was not a 
hand lifted in their aid. Prussia and Austria stood 
in a threatening attitude, each with an army of sixty 
thousand men upon the frontiers, ready to march to 
the aid of Eussia if any disturbance took place in 
their Polish provinces. Eussia invaded the country 
with an army of one hundred and twenty thousand 
men, a force more than double that which Poland 
was able to raise. And the Polish army was com- 
manded by a titled incapable. Prince Eadzivil, chosen 
248 



THE DEATH-STRUGGLE OF POLAND. 249 

because he had a great name, regardless of his lack 
of ability as a soldier. Chlopicki, his aide, was a 
skilled commander, but he fought with his hands 
tied. 

On the 19th of February, 1831, the two armies 
met in battle, and began a desperate struggle which 
lasted with little cessation for six days. Warsaw 
lay in the rear of the Polish army. Behind it flowed 
the Vistula, with but a single bridge for escape in 
case of defeat. Yictory or death seemed the alter- 
natives of the patriot force. 

The struggle was for the Alder Wood, the key of 
the position. For the possession of this forest the 
fight was hand to hand. Again and again it was 
lost and retaken. On the 25th, the final day of bat- 
tle, it was held by the Poles. Forty -five thousand 
in number, they were confronted by a Eussian army 
of one hundred thousand men. Diebitsch, the Eus- 
sian commander, determined to win the Alder Wood 
at any cost. Chlopicki gave orders to defend it to 
the last extremity. 

The struggle that succeeded was desperate. By 
sheer force of numbers the Eussians made them- 
selves masters of the wood. Then Chlopicki, put- 
ting himself at the head of his grenadiers, charged 
into the forest depths, driving out its holders at the 
bayonet's point. Their retreat threw the whole Eus- 
sian line into confusion. Now was the critical mo- 
ment for a cavalry charge. Chlopicki sent orders to 
the cavalry chief, but he refused to move. This loss 
of an opportunity for victory maddened the valiant 
leader. " Go and ask Eadzivil," he said to the aides 



250 HISTORICAL TALES. 

who asked for orders ; " for me, I seek only death." 
Plunging into the ranks of the enemy, he was 
wounded by a shell, and borne secretly from the 
field. But the news of this disaster ran through the 
ranks and threw the whole army into consternation. 

The fall of the gallant Chlopicki changed the tide 
of battle. Fiercely struggling still, the Poles were 
driven from the wood and hurled back upon the 
Yistula. A battalion of recruits crossed the river on 
the ice and carried terror into Warsaw. Crowds of 
peasants, heaps of dead and dying, choked the ap- 
proach to Praga, the outlying suburb. Night fell 
upon the scene of disorder. The houses of Praga 
were fired, and flames lit up the frightful scene. 
Groans of agony and shrieks of despair filled the air. 
The streets were choked with debris, but workmen 
from Warsaw rushed out with axes, cleared away the 
ruin, and left the passages free. 

Inspirited by this, the infantry formed in line and 
checked the charge of the Eussian horse. The Al- 
bert cuirassiers rode through the first Polish line, 
but soon found their horses floundering in mud, and 
themselves attacked by lancers and pikemen on all 
sides. Of the brilliant and daring corps scarce a 
man escaped. 

That day cost the Poles five thousand men. Of 
the Russians more than ten thousand fell. Eadzivil, 
fearing that the single bridge would be carried away 
by the broken ice, gave orders to retreat across the 
stream. Diebitsch withdrew into the wood. And 
thus the first phase of the struggle for the freedom 
of Poland came to an end. 



THE DEATH-STRUGGLE OF POLAND. 251 

This aifair was followed by a striking series of 
Polish victories. The ice in the Vistula was run- 
ning free, the river overflowed its banks, and for a 
month the main bodies of the armies were at rest. 
But General Dwernicki, at the head of three thou- 
sand Polish cavalry, signalized the remainder of 
February by a series of brilliant exploits, attacking 
and dispersing with his small force twenty thousand 
of the enemy. 

Eadzivil, whose incompetency had grown evident, 
was now removed, and Skrzynecki, a much abler 
leader, was chosen in his place. He was not long in 
showing his skill and daring. On the night of March 
80 the Praga bridge was covered with -straw and the 
army marched noiselessly across. At daybreak, in 
the midst of a thick fog, it fell on a body of sleep- 
ing Eussians, who had not dreamed of such a move- 
ment. Hurled back in disorder and dismay, they 
were met by a division which had been posted to 
cut off their retreat. The rout was complete. Half 
the corps was destroyed or taken, and the remainder 
fled in terror through the forest depths. 

Before the day ended the Poles came upon Rosen's 
division, fifteen thousand in number, and strongly 
posted. Yet the impetuous onslaught of the Poles 
swept the field. The Russians were driven back in 
utter rout, with the loss of two thousand men, six 
thousand prisoners, and large quantities of cannon 
and arms. The Poles lost but three hundred men in 
this brilliant success. During the next day the pur- 
suit continued, and five thousand more prisoners were 
taken. So disheartened were the Russian troops by 



252 HISTORICAL TALES. 

these reverses that when attacked on April 10 at 
the village of Iganie they scarcely attempted to de- 
fend themselves. The flower of the Eussian infan- 
try, the lions of Varna, as they had been called since 
the Turkish war, laid down their arms, tore the 
eagles from their shakos, and gave themselves up 
as prisoners of war. Twenty-five hundred were 
taken. 

What immediately followed may be told in a few 
words. Skrzynecki failed to follow up his remark- 
able success, and lost valuable time, in which the 
Eussians recovered from their dismay. The brave 
Dwernicki, after routing a force of nine thousand 
with two thousand men, crossed the frontier and 
was taken prisoner by the Austrians, who had made 
no objection to its being crossed by the Eussians. 
And, as if nature were fighting against Poland, the 
cholera, which had crossed from India to Eussia and 
Infected the Eussian troops, was communicated to 
the Poles at Iganie, and soon spread throughout 
their ranks. 

The climax in this suicidal war came on the 26th 
of May, when the whole Eussian army, led by Gen- 
eral Diebitsch, advanced upon the Poles. During 
the preceding night the Polish army had retreated 
across the river IvTarew, but, by some unexplained 
error, had left Lubienski's corps behind. On this 
gallant corps, drawn up in front of the town of 
Ostrolenka, the host of Eussians fell. Flanked by 
the Cossacks, who spread out in clouds of horsemen 
on each wing, the cavalry retreated through the 
town, followed by the infantry, the 4th regiment 



THE DEATH-STRUGGLE OP POLAND. 253 

of the line, which formed the rear-guard, fighting 
step by step as it slowly fell back. 

Across the bridges poured the retreating Poles. 
The Eussians followed the rear-guard hotly into the 
town. Soon the houses were in flames. Disorder 
reigned in the streets. The fight continued in the 
midst of the conflagration. Eussian infantry took 
possession of the houses adjoining the river and fired 
on the retreating mass. Artillery corps rushed to 
the river bank and planted their batteries to sweep 
the bridges. All the avenues of escape were choked 
by the columns of the invading force. 

The 4th regiment, which had been left alone in 
the town, was in imminent peril of capture, but at 
this moment of danger it displayed an indomitable 
spirit. With closed ranks it charged with the bay- 
onet on the crowded mass before it, rent a crimson 
avenue through its midst, and cleared a passage to the 
bridges over heaps of the dead. Over the quaking 
timbers rushed the gallant Poles, followed closely 
by the Eussian grenadiers. The Polish cannon swept 
the bridge, but the gunners were picked off by sharp- 
shooters and stretched in death beside their guns. 
On the curving left bank eighty Eussian cannon were 
planted, whose fire protected the crossing troops. 

Meanwhile the bulk of the Polish army lay unsus- 
pecting in its camp. Skrzynecki, the commander, 
resting easy in the belief that all his men were 
across, heard the distant firing with unconcern. Sud- 
denly the imminence of the peril was brought to his 
attention. Pushing from his tent, and springing 
upon his horse, he galloped madly through the ranks, 



254 HISTORICAL TALES. 

shouting wildly, as he passed from column to col- 
umn, " Ho! Eybinski ! Ho! Malachowski ! Forward ! 
forward, all!" 

The troops sprang to their feet ; the forming bat- 
talions rushed forward in disorder ; from end to 
end of the line rushed the generalissimo, the other 
officers hurrying to his aid. Charge after charge 
was made on the Eussians who had crossed the 
stream. As if driven by frenzy, the Poles fell on 
their foes with swords and pikes. Singing the 
Warsaw hymn, the officers rushed to the front. 
The lancers charged boldly, but their horses sank 
in the marshy soil, and they fell helpless before the 
Eussian fire. 

The day passed ; night fell ; the field of battle was 
strewn thick with the dead and dying. Only a part 
of the Eussian army had succeeded in crossing. 
Skrzynecki held the field, but he had lost seven 
thousand men. The Eussians, of whom more than 
ten thousand had fallen, recrossed the river during 
the night. But they commanded the passage of the 
stream, and the Polish commander gave orders for a 
retreat on Warsaw, sadly repeating, as he entered 
his carriage, Kosciusko's famous words, " Finis Po- 
lonies." 

The end indeed was approaching. The resources 
of Poland were limited, those of Eussia were im- 
mense. New armies trebly replaced all Eussian 
losses. Field-Marshal Paskievitch, the new com- 
mander, at the head of new forces, determined to 
cross the Yistula and assail Warsaw on the left bank 
of the stream, instead of attacking its suburb of 



THE DEATH-STRUGGLE OF POLAND. 255 

Praga and seeking to force a passage across the river 
at that point, as on former occasions. 

The march of the Eussians was a difficult and 
dangerous one. Heavy rains had made the roads 
almost impassable, while streams everywhere inter- 
sected the country. To transport a heavy park of 
artillery and the immense supply and baggage train 
for an army of seventy thousand men, through such 
a country, was an almost impossible task, particu- 
larly in view of the fact that the cholera pursued it 
on its march, and the sick and dying proved an al- 
most fatal encumbrance. 

Had it been attacked under such circumstances 
by the Polish army, it might have been annihilated. 
But Skrzynecki remained immovable, although his 
troops cried hotly for " battle ! battle !" whenever he 
appeared. The favorable moment was lost. The 
Eussians crossed the Yistula on floating bridges, and 
marched in compact array upon the Polish capital. 

And now clamor broke out everywhere. Eiots in 
Warsaw proclaimed the popular discontent. A dic- 
tator was appointed, and preparations to defend the 
city to the last extremity were made. But at the 
last moment twenty thousand men were sent out to 
collect supplies for the threatened city, leaving only 
thirty-five thousand for its defence. The Eussians, 
meanwhile, had been reinforced by thirty thousand 
men, making their army one hundred and twenty 
thousand strong, while in cannon they outnumbered 
the Poles three to one. 

Such was the state of affairs in beleaguered War- 
saw on that fatal 6th of September when the Eus- 



256 HISTORICAL TALES. 

sian general, taking advantage of the weakening of 
the patriot army, ordered a general assault. 

At daybreak the attack began with a concentrated 
fire from two hundred guns. The troops, who had 
been well plied with brandy, rushed in a torrent 
upon the battered walls, and swarmed into the 
suburb of Wola, driving its garrison into the church, 
where the carnage continued until none were left to 
resist. 

From "Wola the attack was directed, about noon, 
upon the suburb of Czyste. This was defended by 
forty guns, which made havoc in the Eussian ranks, 
while two battalions of the 4th regiment, rushing 
upon them in their disorder, strove to drive them 
back and wrest Wola from their hands. The effort 
was fruitless, strong reinforcements coming to the 
Eussian aid. 

Through the blood-strewn streets of the city the 
struggle continued, success favoring now the Poles, 
now the Eussians. About five in the afternoon the 
tide of battle turned decisively in favor of the Eus- 
sians. A shower of shells from the Eussian batteries 
had fired the houses of Czyste, within whose flame- 
lit streets a hand-to-hand struggle went on. The 
famous 4th regiment, intrenched in the cemetery, 
defended itself valiantly, but was driven back by the 
spread of the flames. Night fell, but the conflict 
continued. The dawn of the following day saw the 
city at the mercy of the Eussian host. The twenty 
thousand men sent out to forage were still absent. 
Nothing remained but surrender, and at nine in the 
evening the news of the capitulation was brought 



THE DEATH-STRUGGLE OP POLAND. 257 

to the army, to whom orders to retire on Praga were 
given. 

Thus ended the final struggle for the freedom of 
Poland. The story of what followed it is not our 
purpose to tell. The mild Alexander was no longer 
on the Eussian throne. The stern Nicholas had re- 
placed him, and fearful was his revenge. For the 
crime of patriotism Poland was decimated, thousands 
of its noblest citizens being transported to the Cau- 
casus and Siberia. The remnant of separate exist- 
ence possessed by Poland was overthrown, and it 
was made a province of the Eussian empire. Even 
the teaching of the Polish language was forbidden, 
the youth of the nation being commanded to learn 
and speak the Eussian tongue. As for the perse- 
cution and suffering which fell upon the Poles as a 
nation, it is too sad a story to be here told. There 
,18 still a Polish people, but a Poland no more. 



17 



SCHAMYL THE HERO OF CIR- 
CASSIA. 

In the region lying between the Black Sea and the 
Caspian Sea rise the rugged Caucasian Mountains, 
a mighty wall of rock which there divides the con- 
tinents of Europe and Asia. Monarch of those lofty 
hills towers the tall peak of Elbrus, called by the 
natives " the great spirit of the mountains." Farther 
east Kasbek lifts its lofty summit, and at a lower level 
the whole jagged line, "the thousand-peaked Cau- 
casus," rises into view. Below these a lower range, 
dark with forests, marks its outline on the snowy 
summits beyond. Fruitful clearings appear to the 
height of five thousand feet on the western slopes ; 
garden terraces mount the eastward face, and the 
valleys, green with meadows or golden with grain, 
are dotted with clusters of cottages. Sheep and 
goats browse in great numbers on the hill-sides; 
lower down the camel and buffalo feed ; herds of 
horses roam half wild through the glades, and from 
the higher rocks the chamois looks boldly down on 
the inhabited realms below. 

In these mountain fastnesses dwells a race of bold 
and liberty-loving mountaineers who have preserved 
their freedom through all the historic eras, yielding 
only at last, after years of valiant resistance, when 
the whole power of the Eussian empire was brought 
258 



SCHAMYL, THE HERO OF CIRCASSIA. 259 

to bear upon them in their wilds. For years the 
heroic Schamyl, their unconquerable chief, braved his 
foes, again and again he escaped from their toils or 
hurled them back in defeat, and for a quarter of a 
century he defied all the power of Eussia, yielding 
only when driven to his final lair. 

In the aoul or village of Himri, perched like an 
eagle's nest high on a projecting rock, this famous 
chief was born in the year 1797. The only access 
to this high-seated stronghold was by a narrow path 
winding several hundred feet up the slope, while 
a triple wall, flanked by high towers, further de- 
fended it, and the overhanging brow of the moun- 
tain guarded it above. Such is the character of 
one of the strongholds of this mountain land, and 
such an example of the difficulties its foes had to 
overcome. 

There are no finer horsemen than the daring Cir- 
cassian mountaineers, who are ready to dash at full 
speed up or down precipitous steeps, to leap chasms, 
or to swim raging torrents. In an instant, also, 
they can discharge their weapons, unslinging the 
gun when at full gallop, firing upon the foe, and as 
quickly returning it to its place. They can rest sus- 
pended on the side of the horse, leap to the ground 
to pick up a fallen weapon, and bound into the saddle 
again without a halt. And such is the precision of 
their aim that they are able to strike the smallest 
mark while riding at full speed. 

Such were some of the arts in which Schamyl 
was trained, and in which he became signally ex- 
pert. In the hunt, the trial of skill, all the labors 



260 HISTORICAL TALES. 

and sports of the youthful mountaineers, he was an 
adept, and so valiant and resourceful that his ad- 
miring countrymen at length chose him as their 
Iman, or governor, during the defence of their coun- 
try against the Eussian invaders. 

The first battle in which Schamyl engaged was 
behind the walls of his native village. Himri, well 
situated as it was, was hurled into ruin by the 
artillery of the foe, and among its prostrate de- 
fenders lay Schamyl, with two balls through his 
body. He was left by the enemy as dead, and in 
after- years the mountaineers looked upon his escape 
and recovery as due to miracle. 

Schamyl was thirty -seven years of age when he 
became leader of the tribes. Of middle stature, with 
fair hair, gray eyes shadowed with thick brows, a 
Grecian nose, small mouth, and unusually fair com- 
plexion, he was one of the handsomest and most 
distinguished in appearance of the mountaineers. 
He was erect in carriage, light and active in tread, 
and had a natural nobility of air and aspect. His 
manner was calmly commanding, while his eloquence 
was at once fiery and persuasive. " Flames sparkle 
from his eyes," says one, " and flowers are scattered 
from his lips." 

In 1839 the Eussians made one of their moat 
determined efforts to crush the resistance of the 
mountaineers. Schamyl's head-quarters were then 
at Akhulgo, a stronghold perched upon the top of 
an isolated conical peak around whose foot a river 
wound. Strong by nature, it was well fortified, 
trenches, earthworks, and covered ways now taking 



SCHAMYL, THE HERO OP CIRCASSIA. 261 

the place of those stone walls which the Eussian 
cannon had so easily overturned at Himri. 

Other fortified works were built on the road to 
Akhulgo, which was retained as a last resort, behind 
whose defences the mountaineers were resolved to 
conquer or die. Its garrison was composed of the 
fiower of the Circassian warriors, while some fifteen 
thousand men beside stood ready to take part in the 
fight. 

In the month of May the Eussians advanced, 
with such energy and in such force that the ante- 
rior works were soon taken, and the mountaineers 
found themselves obliged to take refuge in their 
final fortress of defence. The fight here was fierce 
and persistent. Step by step the Eussians made 
their way, pushing their parallels against the in- 
trenched works of their foes. Point after point was 
gained, and at length, in late August, the crisis came. 
A sudden charge carried them into the fort, and the 
defenders died where they stood, leaving only women 
and children to fall as prisoners into the Eussians' 
hands. 

But Schamyl had disappeared. Seek as they 
would, the chief was not to be found. The fortress, 
the approaches, every nook and corner, were ex- 
plored, but the famous warrior, for whom his foes 
would have given half their wealth, had utterly 
vanished, no one knew how. To make sure of his 
death they had scarcely left a fighting man alive, 
yet to their chagrin the redoubtable Schamyl was 
soon again in the field. 

How the brave mountaineer escaped is not known. 



262 HISTORICAL TALES. 

Of the stories afloat, one is that he lay concealed 
until night in a rock refuge, and then managed to 
swim the river while some of his friends attracted 
the attention and drew the fire of the guards. All 
that can be said is that in September he reappeared, 
ready for new feats of arms, and was seen again at 
the head of a gallant body of mountain warriors. 

His head-quarters were now fixed at Dargo, a vil- 
lage in the heart of the mountains and in the midst 
of the primeval forest. But the chief had learned a 
lesson from his late experience. The Circassians 
were no match for the Eussians behind fortifications. 
He resolved in the future to fight in a manner better 
suited to the habits of his followers, and to wear out 
the foe by a guerilla warfare. 

Three years passed before the Eussians again 
sought to penetrate the mountains in force. Then 
General Grabbe, the victor at Akhulgo, attempted to 
repeat his success at Dargo. But the experience he 
gained proved to be of a less agreeable type. At the 
close of the first day's march, when the soldiers had 
eaten their evening meal and stretched their limbs 
to rest after a hard day's march, they were sud- 
denly brought to their feet by a rattling volley of 
musketry from the surrounding woods. All night 
long the firing continued, no great damage being 
done in the darkness, but the soldiers being eifectu- 
ally deprived of their rest. When day dawned there 
was not a Circassian to be seen. 

IN'ear noon, as the column wound through a ravine 
in the forest, the firing sharply recommenced, a mur- 
derous volley pouring upon the vanguard from be- 



SCHAMYL, THE HERO OF CIRCASSIA. 263 

hind the trees. The number of wounded became so 
great that there were not wagons enough for their 
transportation. Still General Grab be kept on, de- 
spite the advice of his officers, only to be attacked 
again at night as his weary men lay in a small open 
meadow among the hills. All night long the whiz 
of bullets drove away repose, and at every step of 
the next day's march the woods belched forth the 
leaden messengers of death. 

The goal of the march was near at hand. The 
little village of Dargo could be seen on a distant 
hill-top. But it was to be reached only by a path 
of death, and the Eussian commander was at length 
forced to give the order to retreat. On seeing the 
column wheel and begin its backward march the 
Circassians grew wild with excitement and triumph. 
Slinging their rifles behind their backs, they rushed, 
sabre in hand, upon the enemy's centre, breaking 
through it again and again, while a deadly hail of 
rifle-shots still came from the woods. In the end, of 
the column of six thousand, two thousand were left 
dead, the remainder reaching the fortress from which 
they had set out in sorry phght. 

For several years Schamyl made Dargo his head- 
quarters. iN'ot until 1845 did the Eussians succeed 
in taking it, their army now being ten thousand 
strong. But it was a village in flames they cap- 
tured. Schamyl had fired it before leaving, and the 
Eussians were so beset in coming and going that 
their empty conquest was made at the cost of three 
thousand of their men. 

In the spring of the following year the valiant 



264 HISTORICAL TALES. 

chief repaid the enemy in part for these invasions 
of his country. He had now under his command 
no less than twenty thousand warriors, largely horse- 
men, and in the leafy month of May, taking advan- 
tage of a weakening of the Eussian line, he dashed 
suddenly from the highlands for a raid in the neigh- 
boring country of the Kabardians. 

Two rivers flowed between the mountain ranges 
and the Kabardas, and two lines of hostile fortresses 
guarded the frontier, containing in all no less than 
seventy thousand men. Between the forts lay Cos- 
sack settlements, and beyond them the Kabardians, 
an armed and warlike race. Schamyl had no artil- 
lery, no fortresses, no depots of provisions and am- 
munition. All he could do was to make a quick 
dash and a hasty return. 

Down upon the Cossacks he rode, followed by his 
thousands of daring riders. Plundering their vil- 
lages, he halted to take no forts except those that 
went down in the whirl of his coming. Before the 
garrisons in the strongholds fairly knew that he was 
among them he was gone ; and while the Kabar- 
dians believed that he was lurking in the mountain 
depths, he suddenly dashed into their midst. Sixty 
populous Kabardian villages were plundered, and 
the mountaineers proudly refused to turn till they 
had watered their horses in the Kuban and even 
reached the more distant banks of the Laba. 

But how were they to return? Thousands of 
horsemen had gathered in the way. Long battalions 
of infantry had hurried to cut off the raiders on 
their retreat. Schamyl knew that he could not get 



SCHAMTL, THE HERO OF CIRCASSIA. 265 

back by the way he had come ; but, turning south- 
ward, he galloped at headlong speed through the 
Cossack settlements in that quarter, and, with his 
cruppers laden with booty and his saddle-bows well 
furnished with food, evaded his foes and reached 
the mountains again. May seemed to bloom more 
richly than ever as the wild riders dashed proudly 
back to the doors of their homes and heard the glad 
shouts of joy that greeted their safe return. 

The whole story of the exploits of the famous 
Circassian chief is too extended and too full of stir- 
ring incidents to be here given even in epitome. It 
must suffice to say, in conclusion, that ten years 
after his escape from Akhulgo that stronghold was 
again attacked and taken by the Eussians, and as 
before Schamyl mysteriously escaped. Completely 
baffled, nothing was left for the Eussians but to 
wear out the chief and his people by continued in- 
vasions of their mountain land. Again and again 
their armies were beaten by their indomitable foe, 
but the continuance of the struggle slowly exhausted 
the land and its powers of resistance. 

The Circassians were helped during the Crimean 
War by the foes of Eussia, who supplied them with 
arms and money, but after that war the Eussians 
kept up the struggle with more energy than ever, 
and, by opening a road over the mountains, cut off 
a part of the country and compelled its submission. 
At length, in April, 1859, twenty-five years after the 
struggle began, Weden, Schamyl' s stronghold at that 
time, was taken, after a seven weeks' siege. As be- 
fore, the chief escaped, but the country was virtually 



266 HISTORICAL TALES. 

subdued, and he had only a small band of followers 
left. 

For months afterwards his foes pursued him ac- 
tively from fastness to fastness, determined to run 
him down, and at length, on September 6, 1859, sur- 
prised him on the plateau of Gounib. Here the de- 
voted band made a desperate resistance, not yielding 
until of the original four hundred only forty-seven 
remained alive. Schamyl, the lion of the Caucasus, 
was at length taken, after having cost the Eussians 
uncounted losses in life and raoney. 

With his capture the independence of Circassia 
came to an end. It has since formed an integral 
part of the Eussian empire, and its subjugation has 
opened the gateway to that vast expansion of Eus- 
sia in Central Asia which since then has taken place. 
The captive chief had won the respect of his foes, 
and was honorably treated, being assigned a resi- 
dence at Kaluga, in Central Eussia, with an annual 
pension of five thousand dollars. He, like his coun- 
trymen, was a Mohammedan in faith, and removed 
to Mecca, in Arabia, in 1870, dying at Medina in the 
following year. 



:J.'^>i ^■'i,i*;.v 




MOUNT ST. PETER, CRIMEA. 



THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT 
BRIGADE. 

The Crimean War, brief as was the interval it 
occupied in the annals of time, was one replete 
with exciting events. And of these much the most 
brilliant was that which took place on the 25th of 
October, 1854, the famous "Charge of the Light 
Brigade," which Tennyson has immortalized in song, 
and which stands among the most dramatic inci- 
dents in the history of war. It was truthfully said 
by one of the French generals who witnessed it, " It 
is magnificent, but it is not war." We give it for its 
magnificence alone. 

First let us depict the scene of that memorable 
event. The British and French armies lay in front 
of Balaklava, their base of supplies, facing towards 
Sebastopol. They occupied a mountain slope, which 
was strongly intrenched. A valley lay before them, 
and some two miles distant rose another mountain 
range, rocky and picturesque. In the valley be- 
tween were four rounded hillocks, each crowned by 
an earthwork defended by a few hundred Turks. 
These outlying redoubts formed the central points 
of the famous battle of October 25. 

In the early morning of that day the Eussians 
appeared in force, debouching from the mountain 
passes in front of the allied army. Six compact 

267 



268 HISTORICAL TALES. 

masses of infantry were seen, with a line of artillery 
in front, and on each flank a powerful cavalry force, 
while a cloud of mounted skirmishers filled the space 
between. Fronting the line of the allies were the 
Zouaves, crouching behind low earthworks, on the 
right the 93d Highlanders, and in front the British 
cavalry, composed of the Heavy Brigade, under 
G-eneral Scarlett, and, more in advance, the Light 
Brigade, under Lord Cardigan. Such were, in broad 
outline, the formation of the ground and the posi- 
tion of the actors in the drama of battle about to be 
played. 

The scene opened with an attack on the advanced 
redoubts. 'No. 1 was quickly taken, the Turks fly- 
ing in haste before the fire of the Eussian guns. 
No. 2 was evacuated in similar panic haste, the Cos- 
sack skirmishers riding among the fleeing Turks and 
cutting them mercilessly down. The guns of No. 2 
were at once turned upon No. 3, whose garrison of 
Turks fired a few shots in return, and then, as in the 
previous cases, broke into open flight. After them 
dashed the Cossack light horsemen, flanking them to 
right and left, and many of the turbaned fugitives 
paid for their panic with their lives. The Eussians 
had won in the first move of the game. They had 
taken three of the redoubts before a movement could 
be made for their support. 

Next a squadron of the Eussian cavalry charged 
vigorously upon the Highlanders. But a deadly 
rifle fire met them as they came, volley after volley 
tearing gaps through their compact ranks, and in a 
moment more they had wheeled, opened their files, 



THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE. 269 

and were in full flight. "Bravo, Highlanders!" 
came up an exulting shout from the thousands of 
spectators behind. 

It was evident that Balaklava was the goal of the 
Eussian movement, and the heavy cavalry were 
ordered into position to protect the approaches. As 
they moved towards the post indicated, a large body 
of the enemy's cavalry appeared over the ridge in 
front. These were cor^ps d' elite, evidently, their 
jackets of light blue, embroidered with silver lace, 
giving them a holiday appearance. Behind them, as 
they galloped at an easy pace to the brow of the hill, 
appeared the keen glitter of lance-tips, and in the 
rear of the lancers came several squadrons of gray- 
coated dragoons as supports. As the serried ranks 
of horsemen advanced, their pace declined from a 
gallop to an easy trot, and from that almost to a halt. 
Their first line was double the length of the British, 
and three times as deep. Behind it came a second 
line, equally strong. They greatly outnumbered 
their foe. 

It was evident that the shock of a cavalry battle 
was at hand. The hearts of the spectators throbbed 
with excitement as they saw the Heavy Brigade sud- 
denly break into a full gallop and rush headlong 
upon the enemy, making straight for the centre of 
the Eussian line. On they went. Grays and Ennis- 
killeners, in serried array, while their cheers and 
shouts rent the air as they struck the Eussian line 
with an impetus which carried them through the 
close-drawn ranks. For a moment there was a glit- 
tering flash of sword-blades and a sharp clash of 



270 HISTORICAL TALES. 

steel, and then, in thinned numbers, the charging dra- 
goons appeared in the rear of the line, heading with 
unchecked speed towards the second Kussian rank. 

The gallant horsemen seemed buried amid the 
multitude of the enemy. " God help them ! they are 
lost!" came from more than one trembling lip and was 
echoed in many a fearful heart. The onset was ter- 
rific : the second line was broken like the first, and 
in its rear the red-coated riders appeared. But the 
first line of Eussians, which had been rolled back 
upon its flanks by the impetuous rush, was closing 
up again, and the much smaller force in their midst 
was in serious peril of being swallowed up and 
crushed by sheer force of numbers. 

The crisis was a terrible one. But at the moment 
when the danger seemed greatest, two regiments of 
dragoons, the 4th and 5th, who had closely followed 
their fellows in the charge, broke furiously upon 
the enemy, dashing through and rending to frag- 
ments the already broken line. In a moment all was 
over. Less than five minutes had passed since the 
first shock, and already the Eussian horse was in full 
flight, beaten by half its force. Wild cheers burst 
from the whole army as the victors drew back with 
almost intact ranks, their loss having been very 
small. 

Thus ended the famous " Charge of the Heavy 
Brigade." Its glory was to be eclipsed by that 
memorable " Charge of the Light Brigade" which 
became the theme of Tennyson's stirring ode, and 
the recital of which still causes many a heart to 
throb. We are indebted for our story of it to the 



"> 



THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE. 271 

thrilling account of W. H. Eussell, the Times cor- 
respondent, and a spectator of the event. 

As the Russian cavalry retired, their infantry fell 
back, leaving men in three of the captured redoubts, 
but abandoning the other points gained. They also 
had guns on the heights overlooking their position. 
About the hour of eleven, while the two armies thus 
faced each other, resting for an interval from the 
rush of conflict, there came to Lord Cardigan that 
fatal order which caused him to hurl his men into 
" the jaws of death." How it came to be given, how 
the misapprehension occurred, who was at fault in 
the error, has never been made clear. Captain 
Nolan, who brought the order, was one of the first 
to fall, and his story of the event died with him. 
All we know is that he handed Lord Lucan a written 
command to advance, and when asked, " Where are 
we to advance to ?" he pointed to the Russian line, 
and said, " There are the enemy, and there are the 
guns," or words of similar meaning. 

It is a maxim in war that "cavalry shall never 
act without a support," that "infantry should be 
close at hand when cavalry carry guns," and that 
a line of cavalry should have some squadrons in 
column on its flanks, to guard it against a flank 
attack. None of these rules was carried out here, 
and Lord Lucan reluctantly gave the order to ad- 
vance upon the guns, which Lord Cardigan as re- 
luctantly accepted, for to any eye it was evident 
that it was an order to advance upon death. " Some 
one had blundered," and wisdom would have dictated 
the demand for a confirmation of the order. Yalor 



272 HISTORICAL TALES. 

suggested that it should be obeyed in all its blank 
enormity. Dismissing wisdom and yielding to valor, 
Lord Cardigan gave the word to advance, the bri- 
gade, scarcely a regiment in total strength, broke into 
a sudden gallop, and within a minute the devoted 
line was flying over the plain towards the enemy. 

The movement struck Lord Eaglan, from whom 
the order was supposed to have emanated, with con- 
sternation. It struck the Eussians with surprise. 
Surely that handful of men was not going to attack 
an army in position ? Yet so it seemed as the Light 
Brigade dashed onward, the uplifted sabres glitter- 
ing in the morning sun, the horses galloping at full 
speed towards the Eussian guns, over a plain a mile 
and a half in width. 

Not far had they gone when a hot fire of cannon, 
musketry, and rifles belched from the Eussian line. 
A flood of smoke and flame hid the opposing ranks, 
and shot and shell tore through the charging troops. 
Gaps were rent in their ranks, men and horses went 
down in rapid succession, and riderless horses were 
seen rushing wildly across the plain. The first line 
was broken. It was joined by the second. On went 
the brigade in a single line with unchecked speed. 
Though torn by the deadly fire of thirty guns, the 
brave riders rode steadily on into the smoke of the 
batteries, with cheers which too often changed in a 
breath to the cry of death. 

Through the clouds of smoke the horsemen could 
be seen dashing up to and between the guns, cut- 
ting down the gunners as they stood. Then, wheel- 
ing, they broke through a line of Eussian infantry 



THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE. 273 

which sought to stay their advance, and scattered 
it to right and left. In a moment more, to the re- 
lief of those who had watched their career in an 
agony of emotion, they were seen riding back from 
the captured redoubt. 

Scattered and broken they came, some mounted, 
some on foot, all hastening towards the British lines. 
As they wheeled to retreat, a regiment of lancers 
was hurled upon their flank. Colonel Shewell, of 
the 8th Hussars, saw the danger, and rushed at the 
foe, cutting a passage through with great loss. The 
others had similarly to break their way through 
the columns that sought to envelop them. As they 
emerged from the cavalry fight, the gunners opened 
upon them again, cutting new lines of carnage 
through their decimated ranks. The Heavy Brigade 
had ridden to their relief, but could only cover the 
retreat of the slender remnant of the gallant band. 
In twenty-five minutes from the start not a British 
soldier, except the dead and dying, was left on the 
scene of this daring but mad exploit. 

Captain Nolan fell among the first ; Lord Lucan 
was slightly wounded ; ^ Lord Cardigan had his 
clothes pierced by a lance ; Lord Fitzgibbon re- 
ceived a fatal wound. Of the total brigade, some 
six hundred strong, the killed, wounded, and missing 
numbered four hundred and twenty-six. 

While this event was taking place, a body of 
French cavalry made a brilliant charge on a battery 
at the left, which was firing upon the devoted bri- 
gade, and cut down the gunners. But they could 
not get the guns off without support, and fell back 

18 



274 HISTORICAL TALES. 

with a loss of one-fourth their number. Thus ended 
that eventful day, in which the British cavalry had 
covered itself with glory, though it had only glory 
to show in return for its heavy loss. 

Such is the story as it stands in prose. Here is 
Tennyson's poetic version, which is full of the dash 
and daring of the wild ride. 

THE CHAKGE OF THE LIGHT BKIGADE. 

Half a league, half a league, 

Half a league onward, 
All in the valley of Death 

Eode the six hundred. 
" Forward, the Light Brigade ! 
Charge for the guns ! " he said : 
Into the valley of Death 

Bode the six hundred. 

" Forward, the Light Brigade !" 
Was there a man dismayed ? 
Not though the soldier knew 
Some one had blundered : 
Theirs not to make reply, 
Theirs not to reason why, 
Theirs but to do and die, 
Into the valley of Death 

Eode the six hundred. 

Cannon to right of them, 
Cannon to left of them. 
Cannon in front of them. 

Volleyed and thundered ; 
Stormed at with shot and shell, 
Boldly they rode and well ; 
Into the jaws of Death, 
Into the mouth of Hell, 

Eode the six hundred. 



THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE. 275 

Flashed all their sabres bare, 
Flashed as they turned in air, 
Sabring the gunners there, 
Charging an army, while 

All the world wondered : 
Plunged in the battery-smoke 
Eight through the line they broke ; 
Cossack and Eussian 
Eeeled from the sabre-stroke 

Shattered and sundered. 
Then they rode back, but not — 
Not the six hundred. 

Cannon to right of them. 
Cannon to left of them, 
Cannon behind them, 

Volleyed and thundered ; 
Stormed at with shot and shell, 
"While horse and hero fell, 
They that had fought so well 
Came through the jaws of Death, 
Back from the mouth of Hell, 
All that was left of them, 

Left of six hundred. 

When can their glory fade ? 
Oh, the wild charge they made! 

All the world wondered. 
Honor the charge they made ! 
Honor the Light Brigade, 

Noble six hundred I 



THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL, 

The history of Eussia has been largely a history 
of wars, — which indeed might b# said with equal 
justice of most of the nations of Europe. In truth, 
history as written gives such prominence to warlike 
deeds, and glosses over so hastily the events of peace, 
that we seem to hear the roll of the drum rising from 
the written page itself, and to see the hue of blood 
crimsoning the printed sheets. This dominance of 
war in history is a striking instance of false perspec- 
tive. Nations have not spent all or most of their 
lives in fighting, but the clash of the sword rings 
so loudly through the historic atmosphere that we 
scarcely hear the milder sounds of peace. 

So far as Eussia is concerned, the torrent of war 
has rolled mainly towards the south. From those 
early days in which the Scythians drove back the 
Persian host and the early Varangians fiercely 
assailed the Greek empire, the relations of the north 
and the south have been strained, and a rapid suc- 
cession of wars has been waged between the Eus- 
sians and their varying foes, the Greeks, the Tartars, 
and the Turks. For ten centuries these wars have 
continued, with Constantinople for their ultimate 
goal, yet in all these ten centuries of conflict no Eus- 
sian foot has ever been set in hostility within that 
ancient city's walls. 
276 



THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL. 277 

Of these many wars, that which looms largest on 
the historic page is the fierce conflict of 1854-55, in 
which England and France came to Turkey's aid and 
Russia met with defeat on the soil of the Crimea. 
We have already given the most striking and dra- 
matic incident of this famous Crimean war. It may 
be aptly followed by the final scene of all, the assault 
upon and capture of Sebastopol. 

The city of this name (Russian Sevastopol) is a sea- 
port and fortress on the site of an old Tartar village 
near the southwest extremity of the Crimea, built by 
Russia as her naval station on the Black Sea. It 
possesses one of the finest natural harbors of the 
world, and formed the central scene of the Crimean 
War, the English and French armies besieging it 
with all the resources at their command. For nearly 
a year this stronghold of Russia was subjected to 
bombardment. Battles were fought in front of it, 
vigorous efl'orts for its capture and its relief were 
made, but in early September, 1855, it still remained 
in Russian hands, though frightfully torn and rent by 
the torrent of iron balls which had been poured into 
it with little cessation. But now the climax of the 
struggle was at hand, and all Europe stood in breath- 
less anxiety awaiting the result. 

On September 5 the fiercest cannonade the city 
had yet felt was begun by the French, the English 
batteries quickly joining in. All that night and 
during the night of the 6th the bombardment was 
unceasingly continued, and during the 7th the can- 
nons still belched their fiery hail upon the town. 
Everywhere the streets showed the terrible effect 



278 HISTORICAL TALES. 

of this vigorous assault. IS'early every house in sight 
was rent asunder by the balls. Towards evening 
the great dock-yard shears caught fire, and burned 
fiercely in the high wind then prevailing. A large 
vessel in the harbor was next seen in flames, and 
burned to the water's edge. This bombardment was 
preliminary to a general assault, fixed for the 8th, 
and on the morning of that day it was resumed, as 
a mask to the coming chai'ge upon the works. 

The Malakoff fort, the key to the Eussian position, 
was to be assaulted by the French, who gathered in 
great force in its fiont during the night. The Eedan, 
another strong fortification, was reserved for the 
British attack. In the trenches, facing the works, 
men were gathered as closely as they could be 
packed, with their nerves strung to an intense pitch 
as they awaited the decisive word. The hour of 
noon was fixed for the French assault, and as it 
approached a lull in the cannonade told that the 
critical moment was at hand. 

At five minutes to twelve the word was given, and 
like a swarm of angry bees the French sprang from 
their trenches and rushed in mad haste across the 
narrow space dividing them from the Malakoff. The 
place, a moment before quiet and apparently de- 
serted, seemed suddenly alive. A few bounds took 
the active line of stormers across the perilous interval, 
and within a minute's time they were scrambling up 
the face and slipping through the embrasures of the 
long-defiant fort. On they came, stream after stream, 
battalion succeeding battalion, each dashing for the 
embrasures, and before the last of the stormers had 



THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL. 279 

left the trenches the flag of the foremost was waviog 
in triumph above a bastion of the fort. 

The Eussians had been taken by surprise. Yery 
few of them were in the fort. The destructive can- 
nonade had driven them to shelter. It was in the 
hands of the French by the time their foes were 
fully aware of what had occurred. Then a deter- 
mined attempt was made to recapture it, and the 
Russian general hurled his men in successive storm- 
ing columns upon the work, vainly endeavoring to 
drive out its captors. From noon until seven in the 
evening these furious efforts continued, thousands 
of the Eussians falling in the attempt. In the end 
the exhausted legions were withdrawn, the French 
being left in possession of the work they had so ably 
won and so valiantly held. 

Meanwhile the British were engaged in their share 
of the assault. The moment the French tricolor was 
seen waving from the parapet of the Malakoff four 
signal rockets were sent up, and the dash on the 
Eedan began. It was made in less force than the 
French had used, and with a very different result. 
The Eussians were better prepared, and the space to 
be crossed was wider, the assaulting column being 
rent with musketry as it dashed over the interval 
between the trenches and the fort. On dashed the 
assailants, through the abatis, which had been torn 
to fragments by the artillery fire, into the ditch, and 
up the face of the work. The parapet was scaled 
almost without opposition, the few Eussians there 
taking shelter behind their breastworks in the rear, 
whence they opened fire on the assaihng force. 



280 HISTORICAL TALES. 

At this point, instead of continuing the charge, as 
their officers implored them to do, the men halted 
and began loading and firing, a work in which they 
were greatly at a disadvantage, since the Eussians 
returned the fire briskly from behind their shelters. 
Every moment reinforcements rushed in from the 
town and added to the weight of the enemy's fire. 
The assailants were faUing rapidly, particularly the 
officers, who were singled out by their foes. 

For an hour and a half the struggle continued. 
By that time the Eussians had cleared the Eedan, 
but the British still held the parapets. Then a rush 
from within was made, and the assailants were swept 
back and driven through the embrasures or down the 
face of the parapet into the ditch, where their foes 
followed them with the bayonet. 

A short, sharp, and bloody struggle here took 
place. Step by step the band of Britons was forced 
back by the enemy, those who fled for the trenches 
having to run the gauntlet of a hot fire, those who 
remained having to defend themselves against four 
times their force. The attempt had hopelessly failed, 
and of those in the assailing column comparatively 
few escaped. The day's work had been partly a 
success and partly a failure. The French had suc- 
ceeded in their assault. The English had failed in 
theirs, and lost heavily in the attempt. 

What the final result was to be no one could tell. 
Silence followed the day's struggle, and night fell 
upon a comparatively quiet scene. About eleven 
o'clock a new act in the drama began, with a terrific 
explosion that shook the ground like an earth- 



THE TALL OF SEBASTOPOL. 281 

quake. By midnight several other explosions vi- 
brated through the air. Here and there flames were 
seen, half hidden by the cloud of dust which rose be- 
fore the strong wind. As the night waned, the fires 
grew and spread, while tremendous explosions from 
time to time told of startling events taking place in 
the town. What was going on under the shroud of 
night ? The early dawn solved the mystery. The 
Eussians were abandoning the city they had so long 
and so gallantly held. 

The Malakoff was the key of their position. Its 
loss had made the city untenable. The failure of 
the attempt to recover it was followed by immediate 
preparations for evacuation. The gray light of the 
coming day showed a stream of soldiers marching 
across the bridge to the north side. The fleet had 
disappeared. It lay sunk in the harbor's depths. 

The retreat had begun at eight o'clock of the 
evening before, soon after the failure to retake the 
Malakoff. But it was a Moscow the Eussian general 
proposed to leave his foes. Combustibles had been 
stored in the principal houses. About two o'clock 
flames began to rise from these, and at the same 
hour all the vessels of the fleet except the steamers 
were scuttled and sunk. The steamers were re- 
tained to aid in carrying off the stores. A terrific 
explosion behind the Eedan at four o'clock shook the 
whole camp. Four others equally startling followed. 
Battery after battery was hurled into the air by the 
explosion of the magazines. Before seven o'clock 
the last of the Eussians had crossed the bridge to the 
north side, which was uninvested by the allies, and 



282 HISTORICAL TALES. 

the hill-sides opposite the city were alive with troops. 
Smaller explosions followed. From a steamer in the 
harbor clouds of dense smoke arose. Flames spread 
rapidly, and by ten o'clock the whole city was in a 
blaze, while vast columns of smoke rose far into 
the skies, lurid in the glare of the flames below. 
The sounds of battle had ceased. Those of con- 
flagration and ruin succeeded. The final flames were 
those sent up from the steamers, which were set on 
fire when the work of transporting stores had ceased. 

Great was the surprise throughout the camp that 
Sunday morning when the news spread that Sebas- 
topol was on fire and the enemy in full retreat. 
Most of the soldiers, worn out with their desperate 
day's work, slept through the explosions and woke 
to learn that the city so long fought for was at last 
theirs — or so much of it as the flames were likely to 
leave. 

About midnight, attracted by the dead silence, 
some volunteers had crept into an embrasure of the 
Eedan and found the place deserted by the foe. As 
soon as dawn appeared, the French Zouaves began 
to steal from their trenches into the burning town, 
heedless of the flames, the explosions, and the dan- 
ger of being shot by some lurking foe, the desire for 
plunder being stronger in their minds than dread 
of danger. Soon the red uniforms of these daring 
marauders could be seen in the streets, revealed by 
the flames, and the day had but fairly dawned when 
men came staggering back laden with spoils, Eus- 
sian relics being ofl'ered for sale in the camps while 
the Eussian columns were still marching from the 



THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL. 283 

deserted city. The sailors were equally alert, and 
could soon be seen bearing more or less worthless 
lumber from the streets, often useless stuff which 
they had risked their lives to gain. 

The allies had won a city in ruins; but they had 
defeated the Eussians at every encounter, in field 
and in fort, and the Muscovite resources were ex- 
hausted. The war must soon cease. What followed 
was to complete the destruction which the torch 
had began. The splendid docks which Eussia had 
constructed at immense cost were mined and blown 
up. The houses which had escaped the fire were 
robbed of doors, windows, and furniture to add to 
the comfort of the huts which were built for winter 
quarters by the troops. As for the scene of ruin, 
disaster, and death within the city, it was frightful, 
and it was evident that the Eussians had clung to it 
with a death-grip until it was impossible to remain. 
It was an absolute ruin from which the Sebastopol 
of to-day began its growth. 



AT THE GATES OF CONSTANTI- 
NOPLE. 

From the days of Eurik down, a single desire — a 
single passion, we may say — has had a strong hold 
upon the Eussian heart, the desire to possess Con- 
stantinople, that grand gate-city between Europe 
and Asia, with its control of the avenue to the 
southern seas. While it continued the capital of the 
Greek empire it was more than once assailed by 
Eussian armies. After it became the metropolis of 
the Turkish dominion renewed attempts were made. 
But Greek and Turk alike valiantly held their own, 
and the city of the straits defied its northern foes. 
Through the centuries war after war with Turkey 
was fought, the possession of Constantinople their 
main purpose, but the Moslem clung to his capital 
with fierce pertinacity, and not until the year 1878 
did he give way and a Eussian army set eyes on the 
city so long desired. 

In 1875 an insurrection broke out in Bosnia and 
Herzegovina, two Christian provinces under Turkish 
rule. The rebellious sentiment spread to Bulgaria, 
and in 1876 Turkey began a policy of repression so 
cruel as to make all Europe quiver with horror. 
Thousands of its most savage soldiery were let loose 
upon the Christian populations south of the Balkans, 
with full license to murder and burn, and a frightful 
284 



AT THE GATES OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 285 

carnival of torture and massacre began. More than 
a hundred towns were destroyed, and their inhabi- 
tants treated with revolting inhumanity. In the 
month of June, 1876, about forty thousand Bulga- 
rians, of all ages and sexes, were put to death, many 
of the children being sold as slaves in the Turkish 
cities. 

Of all the powers of Europe, Eussia was the only 
one that took arms to avenge these slaughtered 
populations. England stood impassive, the other 
nations held aloof, but Alexander II. called out his 
troops, and once more the Kussian battalions were 
set en route for the Danube, with Constantinople as 
their ultimate goal. 

In June, 1877, the Danube was crossed and the 
Russian host entered Bulgaria, the Turks retiring as 
they advanced. But the march of invasion was 
soon arrested. The Balkan Mountains, nature's line 
of defence for Turkey, lay before the Eussian troops, 
and on the high-road to its passes stood the town of 
Plevna, a fortress which must be taken before the 
mountains could safely be crossed. The works were 
very strong, and behind them lay Osman Pacha, one 
of the boldest and bravest of the Turkish soldiers, 
with a gallant little army under his command. The 
defence of this city was the central event of the war. 
From July to September the Eussians sought its 
capture, making three desperate assaults, all of which 
were repulsed. In October the city was invested 
with an army of forty thousand men, under the in- 
trepid General Skobeleif, with a determination to 
win. But Osman held out with all his old stubborn- 



286 HISTORICAL TALES. 

ness, and continued his unflinching defence until 
starvation forced him to yield. He had lost his city, 
but had held back the Eussian army for nearly half 
a year and won the admiration of the world. 

The fall of Plevna set free the large Eussian army 
that had been tied up by its siege. What should be 
done with these troops, more than one hundred thou- 
sand strong? The Balkans, whose gateways Plevna 
had closed, now lay open before them, but winter 
was at hand, winter with its frosts and snows. An 
attempt to cross the mountains at this time, even if 
successful, would bring them before strong Turkish 
fortresses in midwinter, with a chain of mountains 
in the rear, over which it would be impossible to 
maintain a line of supplies. The prudent course 
would have been to put the men into winter quar- 
ters at the foot of the Balkans on the north and 
wait for spring before venturing upon the mountain 
passes. 

The Grand Duke ISTicholas, however, was not gov- 
erned by such considerations of prudence, but deter- 
mined, at all hazards, to strike the Turks before they 
had time to reorganize and recuperate. The army 
was, therefore, at once set in motion. General Gourko 
marching upon the Araba-Konak, Eadetzky upon 
the Shipka Pass. The story of these movements is 
a long one, but must be given here in a few words. 
The bitter cold, the deep snow, the natural difficul- 
ties of the passes, the efforts of the enemy, all failed 
to check the Eussian advance. Gourko forced his 
way through all opposition, took the powerful for- 
tress of Sophia without a blow, and routed an army 



AT THE GATES OP CONSTANTINOPLE. 287 

of fifty thousand men on his march to Philippopolis. 
Eadetzky did even better, since he captured the 
Turkish army defending the Shipka Pass, thirty-six 
thousand strong. The whole Turkish defence of the 
Balkans had gone down with a crash, and the Eus- 
sians found themselves on the south side of the 
mountains with the enemy everywhere on the retreat, 
a broken and demoralized host. 

Meanwhile what had become of the Turkish pop- 
ulation of the Balkans and Eoumelia? There were 
none of them to be seen ; no fugitives were passed ; 
not a Turk was visible in Sophia ; the whole region 
traversed up to Philippopolis seemed to have only a 
Christian population. But on leaving the last-named 
city the situation changed, and a terrible scene of 
bloodshed, death, and misery met the eyes of the 
marching hosts. It was now easy to see what had 
become of the Turks : they were here in multitudes 
in full flight for their lives. The Bulgarians had 
avenged themselves bitterly on their late oppressors. 
Dead bodies of men and animals, broken carts, heaps 
of abandoned household goods, and tatters of clothing 
seemed to mark every step of the way. Fierce and 
terrible had been the struggle, dreadful the result, 
Turks and Bulgarians lying thickly side by side 
in death. Here appeared the bodies of Bulgarian 
peasants horrible with gaping wounds and mutila- 
tions, the marks of Turkish vengeance ; there beside 
them lay corpses of dignified old Turks, their white 
beards stained with their blood. 

While the men had died from violence, the women 
and children had perished from cold and hunger, 



288 HISTORICAL TALES. 

many of them being frozen to death, the faces and 
tiny hands of dead children visible through the 
shrouding snows. The living were dragging their 
slow way onward through this ghastly array of the 
dead, in a seemingly endless procession of wagons, 
drawn by half- starved oxen, and bearing sick and 
feeble human beings and loads of household goods. 
Beside the laden vehicles the wretched, famine- 
stricken, worn-out fugitives walked, pushing forward 
in unceasing fear of their merciless Bulgarian foes. 

Farther on the scene grew even more terrible. The 
road was strewn with discarded bedding, carpets, and 
other household goods. In one village were visible 
the bodies of some Turkish soldiers whom the Bul- 
garians had stoned to death, the corpses half covered 
with the heaps of stones and bricks which had been 
hurled at them. 

Beyond this was reached a vast mass of closelj?- 
packed wagons extending widely over roads and 
fields, not fewer than twenty thousand in all. The 
oxen were still in the yokes, but the people had van- 
ished, and Bulgarian plunderers were helping them- 
selves unresisted to the spoil. The great company, 
numbering fully two hundred thousand, had fled in 
terror to the mountains from some Eussian cavalry 
who had been fired upon by the escort of the fugi- 
tives and were about to fire in return. Abandoning 
their property, the able-bodied had fled in panic fear, 
leaving the old, the sick, and the infants to perish 
in the snow, and their cherished effects to the hands 
of Bulgarian pilferers. 

In advance lay Adrianople, the ancient capital of 



AT THE GATES OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 289 

Turkey and the second city in the empire. Here, if 
anywhere, the Turks should have made a stand. But 
news came that this stronghold had been abandoned 
by its garrison, that the wildest panic prevailed, and 
that the Turkish population of the city and the sur- 
rounding villages was in full flight. At daylight of 
the 20th of January the city was entered by the 
cavalry, and on the 22d Skobeleff marched in with 
his infantry, at once despatching the cavalry in 
pursuit of the retreating enemy. The defence of 
Adrianople had been well provided for by an exten- 
sive system of earthworks, but not an effort was 
made to hold it, and an incredible panic seemed 
everywhere to have seized the Turks. 

Eussia had almost accomplished the task for which 
it had been striving during ten centuries. Constan- 
tinople at last lay at its mercy. The Turks still had 
an army, still had strong positions for defence, but 
every shred of courage seemed to have fled from 
their hearts, and their powers of resistance to be at 
an end. They were in a state of utter demorahzation 
and ready to give way to Russia at all points and 
accept almost any terms they could obtain. Had 
they decided to continue the fight, they still pos- 
sessed a position famous for its adaptation to de- 
fence, behind which it was possible to hold at bay all 
the power of Eussia. 

This was the celebrated position of Buyak-Tchek- 
medje, a defensive line twenty-five miles from Con- 
stantinople and of remarkable mihtary strength. 
The peninsula between the Black Sea and the Sea of 
Marmora is at this point only twenty miles wide, 

19 



290 HISTORICAL TALES. 

and twelve of these miles are occupied by broad lakes 
which extend inland from either shore. Of the re- 
maining distance, about half is made up of swamps 
which are almost or quite impassable, while dense and 
difficult thickets occupy the rest of the line. Behind 
this stretch of lake, swamp, and thicket there extends 
from sea to sea a ridge from four hundred to seven 
hundred feet in height, the whole forming a most ad- 
mirable position for defence. This ridge had been 
fortified by the Turks with redoubts, trenches, and 
rifle-pits, which, fully garrisoned and mounted with 
guns, might have proved impregnable to the strongest 
force. The thirty thousand men within them could 
have given great trouble to the whole Eussian army, 
and double that number might have completely ar- 
rested its march. Yet this great natural stronghold 
was given up without a blow, signed away with a 
stroke of the pen. 

On January 31 an armistice was signed, one of 
whose terms was that this formidable defensive line 
should be evacuated by the Turks, who were to 
retire to an inner line, while the Eussians were to 
occupy a position about ten miles distant. It was 
no consideration for Turkey that how kept the 
Eussians outside the great capital, but dread of the 
powers of Europe, which jealously distrusted an in- 
crease of the power of Eussia, and were bent on 
saving Turkey from the hands of the czar. 

On February 12 an event took place that threat- 
ened ominous results. The British fleet forced the 
passage of the Dardanelles and moved upon Constan- 
tinople, on the pretence of protecting the lives of 



AT THE GATES OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 291 

British subjects in that city. As soon as news of 
this movement reached St. Petersburg the emperor 
telegraphed to the Grand Duke Nicholas, giving him 
authority to march a part of his army into Con- 
stantinople, on the same plea that the British had 
made. In response the grand duke demanded of 
the sultan the right to occupy a part of the en- 
virons of his capital with Eussian soldiers, the ne- 
gotiations ending with the permission to occupy the 
village of San Stefano, on the Sea of Marmora, about 
six miles from the walls of the threatened city. 

What would be the end of it all was difficult to 
foresee. On the waters of the city floated the Eng- 
lish iron-clads, with their mute threat of war ; around 
the walls Turkish troops were rapidly throwing up 
earthworks ; leading officers in the Eussian army 
chafed at the thought of stopping so near their 
longed-for goal, and burned with the desire to make 
a final end of the empire of the Turks and add 
Constantinople to the dominions of the czar. Yet 
though thus, as it were, on the edge of a volcano, 
their ordinary policy of delay and hesitation was 
shown by the Turkish diplomats, and the treaty of 
peace was not concluded and signed until the 3d of 
March. The Eussians had used their controlling 
position with effect, and the treaty largely put an 
end to Turkish dominion in Europe. 

The news of the signing was received with cheers 
of enthusiasm by the Eussian army, drawn up on 
the shores of the inland sea, the Preobrajensky, 
the famous regiment of Peter the Great, holding the 
post of honor. Scarce a rifle-shot distant, crowding 



292 HISTORICAL TALES. 

in groups the crests of the neighboring hills, and 
deeply interested spectators of the scene, appeared 
numbers of their late opponents. The news re- 
ceived, the cheering battalions wheeled into column, 
and past the grand duke went the army in rapid 
review, the march still continuing after darkness 
had descended on the scene. 

And thus ended the war, with the Eussians within 
sight of the walls of that city which for so many 
centuries they had longed and struggled to possess. 
Only for the threatening aspect of the powers of 
Europe the Ottoman empire would have ended then 
and there, and the Turk, " encamped in Europe," 
would have ended forever his rule over Christian 
realms. 



THE NIHILISTS AND THEIR 
WORK. 

In 1861 Alexander II., Emperor of Eussia, signed 
a proclamation for the emancipation of the Eussian 
serfs, giving freedom by a stroke of the pen to over 
fifty millions of human beings. In 1881, twenty 
years afterwards, when, as there is some reason to 
believe, he was about to grant a constitution and 
summon a parliament for the political emancipation 
of the Eussian people, he fell victim to a band of 
revolutionists, and the thought of granting liberty 
to his people perished with him. 

This assassination was the work of the secret 
society known as the Nihilists. To say that their 
association was secret is equivalent to saying that 
we know nothing of their purposes other than their 
name and their deeds indicate. JSTihilism signifies 
nothingness. It comes from the same root as anni- 
hilate^ and annihilation of despots appears to have 
been the Nihilist theory of obtaining political rights. 
This society reached its culmination in the reign of 
Alexander II., and, despite the fact that he proved 
himself one of the mildest and most public-spirited of 
the czars, he was chosen as the victim of the theory 
of obtaining political regeneration by terror. 

Threats preceded deeds. The final years of the 
emperor's life were made wretched through fear and 

293 



294 HISTORICAL TALES. 

anxiety. His ministers were killed by the revolu- 
tionists. Some of the guards placed about his per- 
son became victims of the secret band. Letters bor- 
dered with black and threatening the emperor's life 
were found among his papers or his clothes. An 
explosive powder placed in his handkerchief injured 
his sight for a time ; a box of asthma pills sent him 
proved to contain a small but dangerous infernal 
machine. He grew haggard through this constant 
peril ; his hair whitened, his form shrank, his nerves 
were unstrung. 

In February, 1879, Prince Krapotkin, governor- 
general of Kharkoff, was killed by a pistol-shot fired 
into his carriage window. In April a Nihilist fired 
five pistol-shots at the czar. In June the Nihilists 
resolved to use dynamite with the purpose of de- 
stroying the governors-general of several provinces 
and the czar and heir-apparent. Among their vic- 
tims was the chief of police, while two of his suc- 
cessors barely escaped death. 

The first attempt to kill the czar by dynamite 
took the form of excavating mines under three rail- 
roads on one of which he was expected to travel. 
Of these mines only one was exploded. A house on 
the Moscow railroad, not far from that city, was pur- 
chased by the conspirators, and an underground 
passage excavated from its cellar to the roadway. 
Here auger-holes were bored upward in which were 
inserted iron pipes communicating with dynamite 
stored below. On the day when the emperor was 
expected to pass, a woman Nihilist named Sophia 
Perovskya stood within view of the track, with in- 



THE NIHILISTS AND THEIR WORK. 295 

structions to wave her handkerchief to the conspira- 
tors in the house at the proper moment. The pilot 
train which always preceded the imperial train was 
allowed to pass. The other train drew up to take 
water, and was wrecked by the explosion of the 
mine. Fortunately for the emperor, he was in the 
pilot train and out of danger. 

Some of the participants in this affair were ar- 
rested, but their chief, a. German named Hartmann, 
escaped. Despite the utmost efforts of the police, he 
made his way safely out of Eussia, aided by Nihilists 
at every step, sometimes travelling on foot, at other 
times in peasants' carts, finally crossing the frontier 
and reaching the nest of conspirators at Geneva. 
Here he is supposed to have taken part with others 
in devising a new and what proved a fatal plot. 
Meanwhile a fresh attempt was made on the life of 
the czar. 

On February 5, 1880, Alexander II. was to enter- 
tain at dinner in the Winter Palace a royal visitor, 
Prince Alexander of Hesse. Fortunately, the czar 
was detained for a short time, and the hour fixed for 
the dinner had passed when the party proceeded 
along the corridor to the dining-hall. The brief delay 
probably saved their lives, for at that moment a tre- 
mendous explosion took place, wrecking the dining- 
hall and completely demolishing the guard-room, 
which was filled with dead and dying victims, sixty- 
seven in all. It proved that a Nihilist had obtained 
employment among some carpenters engaged in re- 
pairs within the palace, and had succeeded in storing 
dynamite in a tool-chest in his room. He escaped, 



296 HISTORICAL TALES. 

and was never seen in St. Petersburg again. Two 
days later the corpse of a murdered policeman was 
found on the frozen surface of the Neva, a paper 
pinned to his breast threatening with death every 
governor-general except Mehkoff, the successor of 
the murdered Krapotkin. 

Their failures had proved so nearly successes that 
the Nihilists were rather encouraged than depressed. 
New plans followed the failure of old ones. It was 
proposed to poison the emperor and his son, the 
murder to be followed by a revolt of the disaffected 
in Moscow and St. Petersburg, the seizure of the pal- 
aces, and the establishment of a constitutional gov- 
ernment. This plan, however, was given up as not 
likely to have the '■'■ great moral effect'' which the 
Nihihsts hoped to produce. 

A Nihilist student in St. Petersburg had sent to 
the Paris committee of the society a recipe for a 
formidable explosive of his invention. A quantity 
of this dangerous substance was manufactured in 
France and secretly conveyed to St. Petersburg, 
where bombs to contain it had been prepared. The 
plans of the conspirators were now very carefully 
laid. They did not propose to fail again, if care 
could insure success. A cheesemonger's shop was 
opened on a street leading to the palace, under 
which a mine was laid to the centre of the carriage- 
way, it being proposed to kill the czar when out 
driving. If his carriage should take another route 
and follow the street leading from the Catharine Ca- 
nal, it was arranged to wreck it with bombs flung 
by hand. The death of the czar was the sole thing 



THE NIHILISTS AND THEIR "WORK. 297 

in view. The conspirators seemed willing freely to 
sacrifice their own lives to that object. As regards 
the mine, it was so heavily charged with dynamite 
that its explosion would have wrecked a great part 
of the Anitchkoff Palace while killing the czar. 

How the explosive material was conveyed from 
Paris to Eussia is a mystery which was never suc- 
cessfully traced by the police. The utmost care was 
taken at the frontiers to prevent the entrance of any 
suspicious substance. For a year or two even the tea 
that came on the backs of camels from China was 
carefully searched, while all travellers were closely 
examined, and all articles coming from Western 
Europe were almost pulled to pieces in the minute- 
ness of the scrutiny. The explosive is said to have 
looked like golden syrup, and to have been sweet to 
the taste, though acrid in its after-effects. A drop 
or two let fall on a hot stove flashed up in a brilliant 
sheet of flame, though without smell or noise. 

Among the conspirators, one of the most useful 
was Sophia Perovskya, the woman already named. 
She was young, of noble family, handsome, edu- 
cated, and fascinating in manner. Her beauty and 
high connections gave her opportunities which none 
of her fellow-conspirators enjoyed, and by her in- 
fluence over men of rank and position she was en- 
abled to learn many of the secrets of the court and 
to become familiar with all the precautions taken by 
the police to insure the safety of the czar. There was 
another woman in the plot, a Jewish girl named 
Hesse Helfman. JEight men constituted the re- 
mainder of the party. 



298 HISTORICAL TALES. 

The fatal day came in March, 1881. On the morn- 
ing of the 12th Melikoff, minister of the interior, 
told the czar that a man connected with the railroad 
explosion had just been arrested, on whose person 
were found papers indicating a new plot. He ear- 
nestly entreated Alexander to avoid exposing him- 
self. On the next morning the czar went early to 
mass, and subsequently accompanied his brother, the 
Grand Duke Michael, to inspect his body-guard, So- 
phia Perovskya had been apprised of these intended 
movements, and informed the chief conspirators, who 
at once determined that the deed should be done 
that day. The lover of Hesse Helfman had been 
arrested and had at once shot himself. Papers of 
an incriminating character had been found in her 
house, and it was feared that further delay might 
frustrate the plot, so that the purpose of waiting 
until the czar and his son might be slain together 
was abandoned. It was not known which street the 
czar would take. If he took the one, the mine was 
to be exploded ; if the other, the bombs were to be 
thrown. 

Two men, Eesikoff and Elnikoif, the latter a 
young man completely under Sophia's influence, 
were to throw the bombs. She took a position from 
which she might signal the approach of the carriage. 
As it proved, the Catharine Canal route was taken. 
The carriage approached. Everything wore its 
usual aspect. There was nothing to excite sus- 
picion. Suddenly a dark object was hurled from 
the sidewalk through the air and a tremendous re- 
port was heard. Eesikoff had flung his bomb. A 



THE NIHILISTS AND THEIR WORK. 299 

baker's boy and the Cossack footman of the czar 
were instantly killed, but the intended victim was 
unhurt and the horses were only slightly wounded. 
The coachman, who had escaped injury, wished to 
drive onward at speed out of the quickly gathering 
crowd, but Alexander, who had seen his footman 
fall, insisted on getting out of the carriage to assist 
him. It was a fatal resolve. As his feet touched 
the ground, Elnikoff flung his bomb. It exploded 
at the feet of the czar with such force as to throw 
men many yards distant to the ground, but proved 
fatal to only two, Elnikoff, who was instantly killed, 
and Alexander, who was mortally wounded, his lower 
limbs and the lower part of his body being frightfully 
shattered. He survived for a few hours in dreadful 
pain. 

Terrible as was the crime, it was worse than use- 
less. The proposed rising did not take place. A 
new czar immediately succeeded the dead one. The 
hoped-for constitution perished with him upon whom 
it depended. The Nihilists, instead of gaining lib- 
eral institutions, had set back the clock of reform 
for a generation, and perhaps much longer. Of the 
conspirators, one of the men was killed, one shot 
himself, and two escaped ; the other four were exe- 
cuted. Of the women, Sophia was executed. She 
knew too much, and those who had betrayed to her 
the secrets of the court, fearing that she might im- 
plicate them, privately urged the new czar to sign 
her death-warrant. She held her peace, and died 
without a word. 



THE ADVANCE OF RUSSIA IN 
ASIA. 

The Emperor of Eussia, lord of his people, abso- 
lute autocrat over some one hundred and twenty-five 
millions of the human race, to-day stands master 
not only of half the soil of Europe but of more than 
a third of the far greater continent of Asia. To 
gain some definite idea of the total extent of this 
vast empire it may sufiice to say that it is con- 
siderably more than double the size of Europe, and 
nearly as large as the whole of North America. 
The tales already given will serve to show how the 
European empire of Eussia gradually spread out- 
ward from its early home in the city and state of 
E'ovgorod until it covered half the continent. How 
Eussia made its way into Asia has been described in 
part in the story of the conquest of Siberia. The 
remainder needs to be told. 

It is now more than three hundred years since the 
Cossack robber Yermak invaded Siberia, and more 
than two centuries since that vast section of North- 
ern Asia was added to the Eussian empire. The great 
river Amur, flowing far through Eastern Siberia to 
the Pacific, was discovered in 1643 by a party of 
Cossack hunters, who launched their boats on this 
magnificent stream and sailed down it to the sea. 
It was Chinese soil through which it ran, its waters 
300 




DOWAGER CZARINA OF RUSSIA. 



THE ADVANCE OF RUSSIA IN ASIA. 301 

flowing through the province of Manchuria, the 
native land of the emperors of China. 

But to this the Eussian pioneers paid little heed. 
They invaded Chinese soil, built forts on the Amur, 
and for forty years war went on. In the end they 
were driven out, and China came to her own again. 

Thus matters stood until the year 1854. Six years 
before, an officer with four Cossacks had been sent 
down the river to spy out the land. They never re- 
turned, and not a word could be had from China as 
to their fate. In the year named the Eussians ex- 
plored the river in force. China protested, but did 
not act, and the whole vast territory north of the 
stream was proclaimed as Eussian soil. Forts were 
built to make good the claim, and China helplessly 
yielded to the gigantic steal. Since then Eussia has 
laid hands on an extensive slice of Chinese territory 
which lies on the Pacific coast far to the south of 
the Amur, and has forcibly taken possession of the 
Japanese island of Saghalien. Her avaricious eyes 
are fixed on the kingdom of Corea, and the whole 
of Manchuria may yet become Eussian soil. 

Siberia is by no means the inhospitable land of 
ice which the name suggests to our minds. That 
designation applies well to its northern half, but not 
to the Siberia of the south. Here are vast fertile 
plains, prolific in grain, which need only the coming 
railroad facilities to make this region the granary 
of the Eussian empire. The great rivers and the 
numerous lakes of the country abound in valuable 
fish ; large forests of useful timber are everywhere 
found; fur-bearing animals yield a rich harvest in 



302 HISTORICAL TALES. 

the icy regions of the north ; the mineral wealth 
is immense, including iron, gold, silver, platinum, 
copper, and lead ; precious stones are widely found, 
among them the diamond, emerald, topaz, and ame- 
thyst ; and of ornamental stones may be named 
malachite, jasper, and porphyry, from which mag- 
nificent vases, tables, and other articles of ornament 
are made. The region on the Amur and its tribu- 
taries is particularly valuable and rich, and a great 
population is destined in the future to find an abid- 
ing-place in this vast domain. 

South of Siberia lies another immense extent of 
territory, stretching across the continent, and com- 
prising the great upland plain known as the steppes. 
On this broad expanse rain rarely falls, and its sur- 
face is half a desert, unfit for agriculture, but yield- 
ing pasturage to vast herds of cattle, horses, and 
sheep, the property of wandering tribes. Here is 
the great home of the nomad, and from these broad 
plains conquering hordes have poured again and 
again over the civilized world. From here came the 
Huns, who devastated Europe in Eoman days ; the 
Turks, who later overthrew the Eastern Empire ; and 
the Mongols, who, led by Genghis and Tamerlane, 
committed frightful ravages in Asia and for cen- 
turies lorded it over Eussia. 

To-day the greater part of this vast territory be- 
longs to China. But westward from Chinese Mongo- 
lia extends a broad region of the steppes, bordering 
upon Europe on the west, and traversed by numer- 
ous wandering tribes known by the name of the 
Kirghis hordes. For many years Eussia, the great 



THE ADVANCE OP RUSSIA IN ASIA. 303 

annexer, has been quietly extending her power over 
the domain of the hordes, until her rule has become 
supreme in the land of the Kirghis, which in all 
maps of Europe is now given as part of Siberia. 

One by one military posts have been established 
in this semi-desert realm, the wandering tribes being 
at first cajoled and in the end defied. The glove of 
silk has been at first extended to the tribes, but 
within it the hand of iron has always held fast its 
grasp. The simple-minded chiefs have easily been 
brought over to the Eussian schemes. Some of 
them have been won by money and soft words; 
others by some mark of distinction, such as a medal, 
a handsome sabre, a cocked hat or a gold-laced coat. 
Bather than give these up some of them would have 
sold half the steppes. They have signed papers of 
which they did not understand a word, and given away 
rights of whose value they were utterly ignorant. 

Thus insidiously has the power of the emperor 
made its way into the steppes, fort after fort being 
built, those in the rear being abandoned as the 
country became subdued and new forts arose in the 
south. Cities have risen around some of these 
forts, of which may be mentioned Kopal and Yer- 
noje, which to-day have thousands of inhabitants. 

" Eussia is thus surrounding the Kirgheez hordes 
with civilization," says the traveller Atkinson, 
" which will ultimately bring about a moral revolu- 
tion in this country. Agriculture and other branches 
of industry will be introduced by the Eussian peas- 
ant, than whom no man can better adapt himself to 
circumstances." 



304 HISTORICAL TALES. 

Michie, another traveller, gives in brief the gen- 
eral method of the Eussian advance. It will be 
seen to be similar to that by which the Indian 
lands of the western United States were gained. 
" The Cossacks at Eussian stations make raids on 
their own account on the Kirgheez, and subject them 
to rough treatment. An outbreak occurs which it 
requires a military force to subdue. An expedition 
for this purpose is sent every year to the Kirgheez 
steppes. The Eussian outposts are pushed farther 
and farther south, more disturbances occur, and so the 
front is year by year extended, on pretence of keeping 
peace. This has been the system pursued by the 
Eussian government in all its aggressions in Asia." 

But this does not tell the whole story of the Eus- 
sian advance in Asia. South of the Kirghis steppes 
lies another great and important territory, known 
as Central Asia, or Turkestan. Much of this region 
is absolute desert, wide expanses of sand, waterless 
and lifeless, on which to halt is to court death. Only 
swift-moving troops of horsemen, or caravans carry- 
ing their own supplies, dare venture upon these arid 
plains. But within this realm of sand lie a number 
of oases whose soil is well watered and of the highest 
fertility. Two mighty rivers traverse these lands, 
the Amu-Daria — once known as the Oxus — and the 
Syr-Daria — formerly the Jaxartes, — both of which 
flow into the Sea of Aral. It is to the waters of 
these streams that the fertility of the oases is due, 
they being diverted from their course to irrigate the 
land. 

Three of the oases are of large size. Of these 



THE ADVANCE OF RUSSIA IN ASIA. 305 

Khiva has the Caspian Sea as its western boundary, 
Bokhara lies more to the east, while northeast of the 
latter extends Khokand. The deserts surrounding 
these oases have long been the lurking-places of the 
Turkoman nomads, a race of wild and warlike horse- 
men, to whom plunder is as the breath of life, and 
who for centuries kept Persia in alarm, carrying off 
hosts of captives to be sold as slaves. 

The religion of Arabia long since made its way 
into this land, whose people are fanatical Moham- 
medans. Its leading cities, Khiva, Bokhara, and 
Saraarcand, have for many centuries been centres of 
bigotry. For ages Turkestan remained a land of 
mystery. 'No European was sure for a moment of life 
if he ventured to cross its borders. Yambery, the 
traveller, penetrated it disguised as a dervish, after 
years of study of the language and habits of the 
Mohammedans, yet he barely escaped with life. It 
is pleasant to be able to say that this state of affairs 
has ceased. Russia has curbed the violence of the 
fanatics and the nomads, and the once silent and 
mysterious land is now traversed by the iron horse. 

The first step of Russian invasion in this quarter 
was made in 1602. In that year a Russian force 
captured the city of Khiva, but was not able to hold 
its prize. In 1703, during the reign of Peter the 
Great, the Khan of Khiva placed his dominions 
under Russian rule, and during the century Khiva 
continued friendly, but after the opening of the nine- 
teenth century it became bitterly hostile. 

Meanwhile Russia was making its way towards the 
Caspian and Aral seas. In 1835 a fort was built on 

20 



306 HISTORICAL TALES. 

the eastern shore of the Caspian and several armed 
steamers were placed on its waters. Four years later 
war broke out with Khiva, and the khan was forced 
to give up some Eussian prisoners he had seized. In 
1847 a fort was built on the Sea of Aral, at the 
mouth of the Syr-Daria, whose waters formed the 
only safe avenue to the desert-girdled khanate of 
Khokand. Steamers were brought in sections from 
Sweden, being carried with great labor across the 
desert to the inland sea, on whose banks they were 
put together and launched. Armed with cannon, 
they quickly made their appearance on the navigable 
waters of the Syr. 

The Amu-Daria is not navigable, so that the Syr 
at that time formed the only ready channel of ap- 
proach to Khokand, and from this to the other khan- 
ates, none of which could be otherwise reached with- 
out a long and dangerous desert march. Eussia thus, 
by planting herself at the mouth of the Syr, had 
gained the most available position from which to 
begin a career of conquest in Central Asia. 

War necessarily followed these steps of invasion. 
In 1853 the Eussians besieged and captured the fort 
of Ak Mechet, on the Syr, thought by its holders to 
be impregnable. Up the river, bordered on each side 
by a narrow band of vegetation from which a desert 
spread away, the Eussians gradually advanced, finally 
planting a military post within thirty-two miles of 
Tashkend, the military key of Central Asia. 

Such was the state of affairs in 1862, when war 
arose between the khanates themselves, and the Emir 
of Bokhara invaded and conquered Khokand. Eus- 



THE ADVANCE OP RUSSIA IN ASIA. 307 

sia looked on, awaiting its opportunity. It came at 
length in an appeal from the merchants of Tashkend 
for protection. The protection came in true Eus- 
sian style, a Cossack force marching into and oc- 
cupying the town, which has since then remained in 
Eussian hands. The movement of invasion went on 
until a large portion of Khokand was seized. 

This audacious procedure of the Muscovites, as the 
Emir of Bokhara regarded it, roused that ruler to a 
high pitch of fury and fanaticism. He imprisoned 
Colonel Struve, an eminent Eussian astronomer who 
was on a mission to his capital, and declared a holy 
war against the invading infidels. 

The emir had little fear of his foes, having what 
he considered two impassable lines of defence. Of 
these the first was the desert, which enclosed his land 
as within a wall of sand. The second, and in his view 
the more impregnable, was the large number of saints 
that lay buried in Bokharan soil, before whose graves 
the infidel host would surely be stayed. 

He probably soon lost faith in the saints, for the 
Eussians quickly drove his troops out of Khokand 
and then invaded Bokhara itself, defeating his troops 
near the venerable and famous city of Samarcand, 
of which they immediately afterwards took posses- 
sion. These infidel assaults soon brought the holy 
war to an end, the emir being forced to cede Samar- 
cand and three other places to Eussia, the four being 
so chosen as to give the invaders full military con- 
trol of the country. 

This disaster, which fell upon Bokhara in 1868, was 
repeated in Khiva in 1873. Bokharan troops aided 



308 HISTORICAL TALES. 

the Eussians, and Bokhara was rewarded with a gen- 
erous slice of the conquered territory. Khiva was 
overthrown as quickly as the other oases had been, 
and the whole of Central Asia became Eussian soil. 
It is true that a shadow of the old government is 
maintained, the khans of Bokhara and Khiva still 
occupying their thrones. But they are mere puppets 
to move as the Czar of Eussia pulls the strings. As 
for Khokand, it has disappeared from the map of 
Asia, being replaced by the Eussian province of Fer- 
ghana. 

We have thus in few words told a long and vital 
story, that of the steps by which Eussia gained its 
strong foothold in Asia, and extended its boundaries 
from the Ural Mountains and Caspian Sea to the 
Pacific Ocean and the boundaries of China, Persia, 
and India, all of which may yet become part of the 
vast Eussian empire, if what some consider the secret 
purpose of Eussia be carried out. 

Asia has been won by the sword ; it is being held 
by other influences. Schools have been founded 
among the Kirghis, and a newspaper is printed in 
their language. Their plundering habits have been 
suppressed, agriculture is encouraged, and luxuries 
are being introduced into the steppes, with the result 
of changing the ideas and habits of the nomads. 
Thriving Cossack colonies have grown up on the 
plains, and the wandering barbarians behold with 
wonder the ways and means of civilization in their 
midst. 

The same may be said of Turkestan, in which 
violence has been suppressed and industry encour- 



THE ADVANCE OF RUSSIA IN ASIA. 309 

aged, while the Eussian population, alike of the 
steppes and of the oases, is rapidly increasing. A 
railroad penetrates the formerly mysterious land, 
trains roll daily over its soil, carrying great num- 
bers of Asiatic passengers, and an undreamed-of 
activity of commerce has taken the place of the old- 
time plundering raids of the half-savage Turkoman 
horsemen. 

The Eussian is thoroughly adapted to deal with 
the Asiatic. Half an Asiatic himself, in spite of his 
fair complexion, he knows how to baffle the arts and 
overcome the prejudices of his new subjects. The 
Eussian diplomatist has all the softness and suavity 
of his Asiatic congeners. He conforms to their cus- 
toms and allows them to delay and prevaricate to 
their hearts' content. He is an adept in the art of 
bribery, has emissaries everywhere, and is much too 
deeply imbued with this Asiatic spirit for the blunt- 
ness of European methods. " You must beat about 
the bush with a Eussian," we are told. " You must 
flatter them and humbug them. You must talk 
about everything but the thing. If you want to 
buy a horse you must pretend you want to sell a 
cow, and so work gradually round to the point in 
view." 

Thus the shrewd Eussian has gained point after 
point from his Oriental neighbors, and has succeeded 
in annexing a vast territory while keeping on the 
friendliest of terms with his new subjects. He has 
respected their prejudices, left their religions un- 
touched, dealt with them in their own ways, and 
is rapidly planting the Muscovite tj^pe of civiliza- 



310 HISTORICAL TALES. 

tion where Asiatic barbarism had for untold ages 
prevailed. 

]N"o man can predict the final result of these move- 
ments. Asia has been in all ages the field of great 
invasions and of the sudden building up of immense 
empires. But the movements of the Muscovite con- 
querors have none of the torrent rush of those 
great invasions of the past. The Eussian advances 
with extreme caution, takes no risks, and makes 
sure of his game before he shows his band. He 
prepares the ground in front before taking a step 
forward, and all that he leaves in his rear falls into 
the strong folds of the imperial net. Gold and diplo- 
macy are his weapons equally with the sword, and 
in the progress of his arms we seem to see Europe 
marching into Asia with a solid and unyielding 
front. 



THE RAILROAD IN TURKESTAN. 

On the 24th of January, 1881, Edward O'Don- 
ovan, a daring traveller who had journeyed far 
through the wastes and wilds of Turkestan, found 
himself on a mountain summit not far removed 
from the northern boundary of Persia, from which 
his startled eyes beheld a spectacle of fearful im- 
port. Below him the desert stretched in a broad 
level far away to the distant horizon. JSTear the 
foot of the range rose a great fortress, within which 
at that moment a frightful struggle was taking 
place. Bringing his field-glass to bear upon the 
scene, the traveller saw a host of terror-stricken 
fugitives streaming across the plain, and hot upon 
their steps a throng of merciless pursuers, who 
slaughtered them in multitudes as they fled. Even 
from where he stood the white face of the desert 
seemed changing to a crimson hue. 

What the astounded traveller beheld was the 
death-struggle of the desert Turkomans, the hand of 
retribution smiting those savage brigands who for 
centuries had carried death and misery wherever 
they rode. These were the Tekke Turkomans, the 
tribes who haunted the Persian frontier, and whose 
annual raids swept hundreds of captives from that 
peaceful land to spend the remainder of their days 
in the most woful form of slavery. For a month 

311 



312 HISTORICAL TALES. 

previous General Skobeleff, the most daring and 
merciless of the Russian leaders, had besieged them 
in their great fort of Geop Tepe, an earthwork 
nearly three miles in circuit, and containing within 
its ample walls a desert nation, more than forty- 
thousand in all, men, women, and children. 

On that day, fatal to the Turkoman power, Sko- 
beleff had taken the fort by storm, dealing death 
wherever he moved, until not a man was left alive 
within its walls except some hundreds of fettered 
Persian slaves. Through its gateways a trembling 
multitude had fled, and upon these miserable fugi- 
tives the Russian had let loose his soldiers, horse, 
foot, and artillery, with the savage order to hunt 
them to the death and give no quarter. 

Only too well was the brutal order obeyed. 'Not 
men alone, but women and children as well, fell vic- 
tims to the sword, and only when night put an end 
to the pursuit did that terrible massacre cease. By 
that time eight thousand persons, of both sexes and 
all ages, lay stretched in death upon the plain. 
Within the fort thousands more had fallen, the 
women and children here being spared. Skobeleff's 
report said that twenty thousand in all had been 
slain. 

Such was the frightful scene which lay before 
O'Donovan's eyes when he reached the mountain 
top, on his way to the Russian camp, a spectacle 
of horrible carnage which only a man of the most 
savage instincts could have ordered. " Bloody Eyes" 
the Turkomans named Skobeleff, and the title fairly 
indicated his ruthless lust for blood. It was his 



THE RAILROAD IN TURKESTAN. 313 

theory of war to strike hard when he struck at all, 
and to make each battle a lesson that would not soon 
be forgotten. The Turkoman nomads have been 
taught their lesson well. They have given no trouble 
since that day of slaughter and revenge. 

Such was one of the weapons with which the Eus- 
sians conquered the desert, — the sword. It was suc- 
ceeded by another, — the iron rail. It is now some 
twenty years since the idea of a railroad from the 
Caspian Sea eastward was first advanced. In 1880 
a narrow-gauge road was begun to aid Skobeleff, but 
that daring and impetuous chief had made his march 
and finished his work before the rails had crept far 
on their way. Soon it was determined to change the 
narrow-gauge for a broad-gauge road, and General 
Annenkofi", a skilful engineer, was placed in charge 
in 1885, with orders to push it forward with all 
speed. 

It was a new and bold project which the Eussians 
had in view. Never before had a railroad been built 
across so bleak a plain, a treeless and waterless ex- 
panse, stretching for hundreds of miles in a dead 
level, over which the winds drove at will the shifting 
sands, constantly threatening to bury any work which 
man ventured to lay upon the desert's broad breast. 
West of Bokhara and south of Khiva stretched the 
great desert of Kara-Kum, touching the Caspian Sea 
on the west, the Amu-Daria Eiver on the east, the 
home of the wandering Turkomans, the born foes of 
the settled races, but from whom all thought of dis- 
puting the Eussian rule had for the time been driven 
by Skobeleff's death-dealing blade. 



314 HISTORICAL TALES. 

The total length of the road thus ordered to be 
built — extending from the shores of the Caspian 
Sea, the outpost of European Eussia, to the far-away 
city of Samarcand, the ancient capital of Timur the 
Tartar, and the very stronghold of Asiatic barbar- 
ism — was little short of a thousand miles, of which 
several hundred were bleak and barren desert. Two 
immense steppes, waterless, and scorching hot in sum- 
mer, lay on the route, while it traversed the oases of 
Kizil-Arvat, Merv, Charjui, and Bokhara. In the 
northern section of the last lay the famous city of 
Samarcand, the eastern terminus of the road. The 
western terminus was at Usun-ada, on the Caspian, 
and opposite the petroleum region of Baku, perhaps 
the richest oil-yielding district in the world. 

General Annenkoff had special diflSculties to over- 
come in the building of this road, of a kind never 
met with by railroad engineers before. Chief among 
these were the lack of water and the instability of 
the roadway, the wind at times manifesting an awk- 
ward disposition to blow out the foundation from 
under the ties, at other times to bury the whole road 
under acres of flying sand. 

These difiiculties were got rid of in various ways. 
Fresh water, made by boiling the salt water of the 
Caspian and condensing the steam, was carried in 
vats or tuns over the road to the working parties. 
At a later date water was conveyed in pipes from 
the mountains to fill cisterns at the stations, whence 
it was carried in canals or underground conduits 
along the line, every well and spring on the route 
being utilized. 



THE RAILROAD IN TURKESTAN. 315 

To overcome the shifting of the sand, near the 
Caspian it was thoroughly soaked with salt water, 
and at other places was covered with a layer of clay. 
But there are long distances where no such means 
could be employed, at least two hundred miles of 
utter wilderness, where the surface resembles a bil- 
lowy sea, the sand being raised in loose hillocks and 
swept from the troughs between, flying in such 
clouds before every wind that an incessant battle 
with nature is necessary to keep the road from 
burial. To prevent this, tamarisk, wild oats, and 
desert shrubs are planted along the line, and in 
particular that strange plant of the wilderness, the 
saxaoul, whose branches are scraggly and scant, but 
whose sturdy roots sink deep into the sand, seeking 
moisture in the depths. Fascines of the branches 
of this plant were laid along the track and covered 
with sand, and in places palisades were built, of 
which only the tops are now visible. 

Yet despite all these efforts the sands creep in- 
sidiously on, and in certain localities workmen have 
to be kept employed, shovelling it back as it comes, 
and fighting without cessation against the forces of 
the desert and the winds. In the building of the 
road, and in this battling with the sands, Turkomans 
have been largely employed, having given up brig- 
andage for honest labor, in which they have proved 
the most efficient of the various workmen engaged 
upon the road. 

Aside from the peculiar difficulties above outlined, 
the Transcaspian Kailway was remarkably favored 
by nature. For nearly the whole distance the coun- 



316 HISTORICAL TALES. 

try is as flat as a billiard-table, and the road so 
straight that at times it runs for twenty or thirty 
miles without the shadow of a curve. In the entire 
distance there is not a tunnel, and only some small 
cuttings have been made through hills of sand. Of 
bridges, other than mere culverts, there are but three 
in the whole length of the road, the only large one 
being that over the Amu-Daria. This is a hastily 
built, rickety affair of timber, put up only as a make- 
shift, and at the mercy of the stream if a serious 
rise should take place. 

The whole road, indeed, was hastily made, with a 
single track, the rails simply spiked down, and the 
work done at the rate of from a mile to a mile and 
a half a day. Before the Bokharans fairly realized 
what was afoot, the iron horse was careering over 
their level plains, and the shrill scream of the loco- 
motive whistle was startling the saints m their 
graves. 

Over such a road no great speed can be attained. 
Thirty miles an hour is the maximum, and from ten 
to twenty miles the average speed, while the stops at 
stations are exasperatingly long to travellers from 
the impatient West. To the Asiatics they are of no 
concern, time being with them not worth a moment's 
thought. 

In the operation of this road petroleum waste is 
used as fuel, the refining works at Baku yielding an 
inexhaustible supply. The carriages are of mixed 
classes, some being two stories in height, each story 
of different class. There are very few first-class 
carriages on the road. As for the stations, some of 



THE RAILROAD IN TURKESTAN. 317 

them are miles from the road, that of Bokhara being 
ten miles away. This method was adopted to avoid 
exciting the prejudices of the Asiatics, who at first 
were not in favor of the road, regarding it as a de- 
vice of Shaitan, the spirit of evil. Yet the "fire- 
cart," as they call it, is proving very convenient, and 
they have no objection to let this fiery Satan haul 
their grain and cotton to market and carry them- 
selves across the waterless plains. The camel is 
being thrown out of business by this shrill-voiced 
prince of evil. The road is being extended over the 
oases, and will in the end bring all Turkestan under 
its control. 

It almost takes away one's breath to think of rail- 
way stations and time-tables in connection with the 
old-time abiding-place of the terrible Tartar, and of 
the iron horse careering across the empire of bar- 
barism, rushing into the metropolis of superstition, 
and waking with the scream of the steam whistle the 
silent centuries of the Orient. ISTothing of greater 
promise than this planting of the railroad in Central 
Asia has been performed of recent years. The son 
of the desert is to be civilized despite himself, and 
to be taught the arts and ideas of the West by the 
irresistible logic of steel and steam. 

But this enterprise is a minor one compared with 
that on which Eussia is now engaged. A railway is 
being built across the whole width of Siberia, to be, 
when finished, with its branches, five thousand miles 
long, — much the longest railway in the world. This 
was begun in 1890, and is now far on its way. Al- 
ready long distances in this land of frost can be 



318 HISTORICAL TALES. 

traversed by rail, and in the early years of the twen- 
tieth century a traveller will be able to ride from 
St. Petersburg to the Pacific's shores without change 
of cars. 

All this is of the deepest significance. The rail- 
road in Asia has come to stay; and with its coming 
the barbarism of the past is nearing its end. The 
sleeping giant of Orientalism is stirring uneasily in 
its bed, its drowsy senses stirred by the shrill alarum 
of the locomotive whistle. New ideas and new 
habits must follow in the track of the iron horse. 
The West is forcing itself into the East, with all its 
restless activity. In the time to come this whole 
broad continent is destined to be covered with rail- 
roads as with a vast spider-web ; new industries will 
be established, machinery introduced, and the great 
region of the steppes, famous in the past only as the 
starting-point of conquering migrations, must in the 
end become an active centre of industry, the home 
of peace and prosperity, a new-found abiding-place 
of civilization and human progress. 



AN ESCAPE FROM THE MINES 
OF SIBERIA. 

The name Siberia calls up to our minds the vision 
of a stupendous prison, a vast open penitentiary 
larger than the whole United States, a continental 
place of captivity which for three centuries past has 
been the seat of more wretchedness and misery than 
any other land inhabited by the human race. To 
that far, frozen land a stream of the best and worst 
of the people of Eussia has steadily flowed, including 
prisoners of state, religious dissenters, rebels, Polish 
patriots, convicts, vagabonds, and all others who in 
any way gave offence to the authorities or stood in 
the way of persons in power. 

^Not freedom of action alone, but even freedom 
of thought, is a crime in Eussia. It is a land of 
innumerable spies, of secret arrest and rapid con- 
demnation, in which the captive may find himself 
on the road to Siberia without knowing with what 
crime he is charged, while his friends, even his wife 
and family, may remain in ignorance of his fate. 
Every year a convoy of some twenty thousand 
wretched prisoners is sent off to that dismal land, 
including the ignorant and the educated, the de- 
based and the refined, men and women, young and 
old, the horror of exile being added to indescribably 
by this mingling of delicate and refined men and 

319 



320 HISTORICAL TALES. 

women witli the rudest and most brutal of the con- 
vict class, all under the charge of mounted Cossacks, 
well armed, and bearing long whips as their most 
effective arguments of control. 

It may be said here that the misery of this long 
journey on foot has been somewhat mitigated since 
the introduction of railroads and steamboats, and 
will very likely be done away with when the Trans- 
siberian Eailway is finished ; but for centuries the 
horrors of the convict train have piteously appealed 
to the charity of the world, while the sufferings and 
brutalities which the exiles have had to endure stand 
almost without parallel in the story of convict life. 

The exiles are divided into two classes, those who 
lose all and those who lose part of their rights. Of 
a convict of the former class neither the word nor 
the bond has any value : his wife is released from 
all duty to him, he cannot possess any property or 
hold any office. In prison he wears convict clothes, 
has his head half shaved, and may be cruelly flogged 
at the will of the officials, or murdered almost with 
impunity. Those deprived of partial rights are usu- 
ally sent to Western Siberia ; those deprived of total 
rights are sent to Eastern Siberia, where their life, 
as workers in the mines, is so miserable and monot- 
onous that death is far more of a relief than some- 
thing to be feared. 

Many of the exiles escape, — some from the dis- 
tricts where they live free, with privilege of getting 
a living in any manner available, others from the 
prisons or mines. The mere feat of running away 
is in many cases not difficult, but to get out of the 



AN ESCAPE FROM THE MINES OP SIBERIA. 321 

country is a very different matter. The officers do 
not make any serious efforts to prevent escapes, and 
can be easily bribed to allow them, since they are 
enabled then to turn in the name of the prisoner as 
still on hand and charge the government for his 
support. In the gold-mines the convicts work in 
gangs, and here one will lie in a ditch and be cov- 
ered with rubbish by his comrades. When his ab- 
sence is discovered he is not to be found, and at 
nightfall he slips from the trench and makes for the 
forest. 

To spend the summer in the woods is the joy of 
many convicts. They have no hope of getting out 
of the country, which is of such vast extent that 
winter is sure to descend upon them before they can 
approach the border, but the freedom of life in the 
woods has for them an undefinable charm. Then as 
the frigid season approaches they permit themselves 
to be caught, and go back to their labor or confine- 
ment with hearts lightened by the enjoyment of 
their vagrant summer wanderings. There is in some 
cases another advantage to be gained. A twenty 
years' convict who has escaped and lets himself be 
caught again may give a false name, and avoid all 
incriminating answers through a convenient failure 
of memory. If not detected, he may in this way 
get off with a five years' sentence as a vagrant. But 
if detected his last lot is worse than his first, since 
the time he has already served goes for nothing. 

There is another peril to which escaping prisoners 
are exposed. The native tribes are apt to look 
upon them as game and shoot them down at sight. 



322 HISTORICAL TALES. 

It is said that they receive three roubles for each 
convict they bring to the police, dead or alive. " If 
you shoot a squirrel," they say, "you get only his 
skin ; but if you shoot a varnak [convict] you get 
his skin and his clothing too." 

Atkinson, the Siberian traveller, tells a remarkable 
story of an escape of prisoners, vrhich may be given 
in illustration of the above remarks. One night in 
September, 1850, the people of Barnaoul, a town in 
Western Siberia, were roused from their slumbers 
by the clatter of a party of mounted Cossacks gal- 
loping up the quiet street. The story they brought 
was an alarming one. Siberia had been invaded by 
three thousand Tartars of the desert, who were 
marching towards the town. Nearly all the gold 
from the Siberian gold-mines lay in Barnaoul, wait- 
ing to be smelted into bars and sent to St. Peters- 
burg. There was much silver also, with abundance 
of other valuable government stores. All this would 
form a rich booty for an army of nomad plunderers, 
could they obtain it, and the news filled the town 
with excitement and alarm. 

As the night passed and the day came on, other 
Cossacks arrived with still more alarming news. 
The three thousand had grown to seven thousand, 
many of them armed with rifles, who were burning 
the Kalmuck villages as they advanced, and mur- 
dering every man, woman, and child who fell into 
their hands. Some thought that the wild hordes of 
Asia were breaking loose again, as in the time of 
Genghis Khan, and the terror of many of the people 
grew intense. 



AN ESCAPE FROM THE MINES OF SIBERIA. 323 

By noon the enemy had increased to ten thousand, 
and the people everywhere were flying before their 
advance. Hasty steps were taken for defence and 
for the safety of the gold and silver, while orders 
were despatched in all directions to gather a force 
to meet them on their way. But as the days passed 
on the alarm began to subside. The number of the 
invaders declined almost as rapidly as it had grown. 
They were not advancing upon the town. No army 
was needed to oppose them, and Cossacks were sent 
to stop the march of the troops. In the course of 
two days more the truth was sifted from the mass 
of wild rumors and reports. The ten thousand in- 
vaders dwindled to forty Circassian prisoners who 
had escaped from the gold-mines on the Birioussa. 

These fugitives had not a thought of invading 
the Eussian dominions. They were prisoners of war 
who, with heartless cruelty, had been condemned to 
the mines of Siberia for the crime of a patriotic 
effort to save their country, and their sole purpose 
was to return to their far-distant homes. 

By the aid of small quantities of gold, which they 
had managed to hide from their guards, they suc- 
ceeded in purchasing a sufficient supply of rifles 
and ammunition from the neighboring tribesmen, 
which they hid in a mountain cavern about seven 
miles away. There was no fear of the Tartars be- 
traying them, as they had received for the arms ten 
times their value, and would have been severely 
punished if found with gold in their possession. 

On a Saturday afternoon near the end of July, 
1850, after completing the day's labors, the Circas- 



324 HISTORICAL TALES. 

sians left the mine in small parties, going in different 
directions. This excited no suspicion, as they were 
free to hunt or otherwise amuse themselves after 
their work. They gradually came together in a 
mountain ravine about six miles south of the mines. 
^N'ot far from this locality a stud of spare horses 
were kept at pasture, and hither some of the fugi- 
tives made their way, reaching the spot just as the 
animals were being driven into the enclosure for 
the night. The three horse-keepers suddenly found 
themselves covered with rifles and forced to yield 
themselves prisoners, while their captors began to 
select the best horses from the herd. 

The Circassians deemed it necessary to take the 
herdsmen with them to prevent them from giving the 
alarm. Two of these also were skilful hunters and 
well acquainted with the surrounding mountain 
regions, and were likely to prove useful as guides. 
In all fifty-five horses were chosen, out of the three 
or four hundred in the herd. The remainder were 
turned out of the enclosure and driven into the 
forest, as if they had broken loose and their keepers 
were absent in search of them. This done, the 
captors sought their friends in the glen, by whom 
they were received with cheers, and before midnight, 
the moon having risen, the fugitives began their 
long and dangerous journey. 

Sunrise found them on a high summit, which com- 
manded a view of the gold-mine they had left, marked 
by the curling smoke which rose from fires kept 
constantly alive to drive away the mosquitoes, the 
pests of the region. Taking a last look at their place 



AN ESCAPE FROM THE MINES OF SIBERIA. 325 

of exile, they moved on into a grassy valley, where 
they breakfasted and fed their horses. On they 
went, keeping a sharp watch upon their guides, day 
by day, until the evening of the fourth day found 
them past the crest of the range and descending into 
a narrow valley, where they decided to spend the 
night. 

Thus far all had gone well. They were now be- 
yond the Eussian frontier and in Chinese territory, 
and as their guides knew the country no farther, 
they were set free and their rifles restored to them. 
Yenison had been obtained plentifully on the march, 
and fugitives and captives alike passed the evening 
in feasting and enjoyment. With daybreak the Si- 
berians left to return to the mine and the Circassians 
resumed their route. 

From this time onward difficulties confronted 
them. The}^ were in a region of mountains, preci- 
pices, ravines, and torrents. One dangerous river 
they swam, but, instead of keeping on due south, the 
difficulties of the way induced them to change their 
course to the west, alarmed, probably, by the vast 
snowy peaks of the Tangnou Mountains in the dis- 
tance, though if they had passed these all danger 
from Siberia would have been at an end. As it was, 
after more than three weeks of wandering, the nature 
of the country forced them towards the northwest, 
until they came upon the eastern shore of the Altin- 
Kool Lake. 

Here was their final chance. Had they followed 
the lake southerly they might still have reached a 
place of safety. But ill fortune brought them upon 



326 HISTORICAL TALES. 

it at a point where it seemed easiest to round it on 
the north, and they passed on, hoping soon to reach 
its western shores. But the Bea, the impassable 
torrent that flows from the lake, forced them again 
many miles northward in search of a ford, and into 
a locality from which their chance of escape was 
greatly reduced. 

More than two months had passed since they left 
the mines, and the poor wanderers were still in the 
vast Siberian prison, from which, if they had known 
the country, they might now have been far away. 
The region they had reached was thinly inhabited by 
Kalmuck Tartars, and they finally entered a village 
of this people, with whose inhabitants they unluckily 
got into a broil, ending in a battle, in which several 
Kalmucks were killed and the village burned. 

To this event was due the terrifying news that 
reached Barnaoul, the alarm being carried to a Cos- 
sack fort whose commandant was drunk at the time 
and sent out a series of exaggerated reports. As 
for the fugitives, they had in eifect signed their 
death-warrant by their conflict with the Kalmucks. 
The news spread from tribe to tribe, and when the 
real number of the fugitives was learned the tribes- 
men entered savagely into pursuit, determined to 
obtain revenge for their slain kinsmen. The Circas- 
sians were wandering in an unknown country. The 
Kalmucks knew every inch of the ground. Scouts 
followed the fugitives, and after them came well- 
mounted hunters, who rapidly closed upon the trail, 
being on the evening of the third day but three 
miles away. 



AN ESCAPE FROM THE MINES OP SIBERIA. 327 

The Circassians had crossed the Bea and turned 
to the south, but here they found themselves in an 
almost impassable group of snow-clad mountains. 
On they pushed, deeper and deeper into the chain, 
still closely pursued, the Kalmucks so managing the 
pursuit as to drive them into a pathless region of 
the hills. This accomplished, they came on leisurely, 
knowing that they had their prey safe. 

At length the hungry and weary warriors were 
driven into a mountain pass, where the pursuers, 
who had hitherto saved their bullets, began a savage 
attack, rifle-balls dropping fast into the glen. The 
fugitives sought shelter behind some fallen rocks, 
and returned the fire with effect. But they were at 
a serious disadvantage, the hunters, who far out- 
numbered them, and knew every crag in the ravines, 
picking them off in safety from behind places of 
shelter. From point to point the Circassians fell 
back, defending their successive stations desperately, 
answering every call to surrender with shouts of 
defiance, and holding each spot until the fall of 
their comrades warned them that the place was no 
longer tenable. 

Night fell during the struggle, and under its cover 
the remaining fifteen of the brave fugitives made 
their way on foot deeper into the mountains, aban- 
doning their horses to the merciless foe. At day- 
break they resumed their march, scaling the rocky 
heights in front. Here, scanning the country in 
search of their pursuers, not one of whom was to be 
seen, they turned to the west, a range of snow-clad 
peaks closing the way in front. A forest of cedars 



328 HISTORICAL TALES. 

before them seemed to present their only chance of 
escape, and they hurried towards it, but when within 
two hundred yards of the wood a puff of white 
smoke rose from a thicket, and one of the fugitives 
fell. The hunters had ambushed them on this spot, 
and as they rushed for the shelter of some rocks near 
by five more fell before the bullets of their foes. 

The fire was returned with some effect, and then 
a last desperate rush was made for the forest shelter. 
Only four of the poor fellows reached it, and of these 
some were wounded. The thick underwood now 
screened them from the volley that whistled after 
them, and they were soon safe from the effects of 
rifle-shots in the tangled forest depths. 

Meanwhile the clouds had been gathering black 
and dense, and soon rain and sleet began to fall, ac- 
companied by a fierce gale. Two small parties of 
Kalmucks were sent in pursuit, while the others 
began to prepare an encampment under the cedars. 
The storm rapidly grew into a hurricane, snow fall- 
ing thick and whirling into eddies, while the pur- 
suers were soon forced to return without having 
seen the small remnant of the gallant band. For 
three days the storm continued, and then was fol- 
lowed by a sharp frost. The winter had set in. 

No further pursuit was attempted. It was not 
needed. Nothing more was ever seen of the four 
Circassians, nor any trace of them found. They un- 
doubtedly found their last resting-place under the 
snows of that mountain storm. 



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